After decades of development,
thymus minimally invasive surgery has derived a variety of surgical
methods. In selected cases, it can achieve equivalent
therapeutic effect as open
surgery. Because
mediastinal disease is rare compared with other
chest diseases, there is a lack of large-scale
comparative study among different surgical
methods, and the choice of surgical approaches is mostly based on the experience and
habit of the operator. The purpose of this
review is to discuss the evolution of minimally invasive
thymus surgery, summarize several kinds of minimally invasive
thymus surgery approaches that are widely used in and abroad, and analyze the integration and improvement
strategies of minimally invasive
thymus surgery in
China.