The Effect of Thymoma on Remission for Patients Who Undergo Thymectomy for Myasthenia Gravis / 대한흉부외과학회지

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Thymoma occurs in approximately 10% of myasthnia gravis patients. The thymus or a thymoma plays a role in the pathogenesis of myasthenia gravis. However, there is currently no definitive position about the effect of thymectomy on patients' symptoms and prognosis. We retrospectively studied the effect of thymoma on remission in patients who underwent thymectomy for myasthenia gravis. MATERIAL AND METHOD: From July, 1992 to December, 2002, we performed extended thymectomy due to myasthenia gravis for 100 patients. The thymoma group included 30 people, the non-thymoma group included 70 people and the change of the Ossermann stage between the two groups after surgery was compared. RESULT: For the non-thymoma group, the average age was 34.7 years (range: 12.7~47.7). Before the surgical operation, the Ossermann stage for the non-thymoma group was an average of 3.06, and this was reduced to an average of 1.41 after operation. For the thymoma group, the average age was 50.9 years (range: 37.3~64.5). Before the surgical operation, the Ossermann stage for the thymoma group was an average of 3.00, and this was reduced to an average of 1.47 after operation. The non-thymoma patients had a higher proportion of males than the thymoma patients (35% vs 30%, respectively). The Masaoka stage was stage of the thymoma group was I for 27 patients and stage II for 3 patients. There was no statistically significant Ossermann stage change between the thymoma and non-thymoma groups. CONCLUSION: Whether thymoma was present or not, there was no significant difference on remission and improvement of myasthenia symptoms after thymectomy in the myasthenia gravis patients.