Contemporary surgical options to remove the thymus gland include median sternotomy with extended resection or minimally invasive techniques. Transcervical thymectomy has been criticized as potentially giving a "lesser" thymectomy. We describe the trans cervical approach with telescope enhancement using a standard VATS camera. This report describes the method emphasising the excellent visualizat...

A specific sensitisation of blood T lymphocytes against the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor has been demonstrated in myasthenic patients. After thymectomy the T lymphocytes response was quickly decreased and in most patients it reached normal values. The T response remained at low or normal levels for at least two years. In patients who had undergone thymectomy three or more years before, a T ...

OBJECTIVE Traditionally, thymectomy for myasthenia gravis has been performed using either a transcervical approach or a median sternotomy. However, excision of the thymic tissue by video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery is less aggressive and recovery is faster. The aim of this study was to evaluate the usefulness and outcomes of video-assisted thoracoscopic thymectomy. PATIENTS AND METHODS Ove...

Myasthenia gravis (MG) is an autoimmune disease with antibodies directed against the acetylcholine receptor at the neuromuscular junction (NMJ). Anesthetists have a special interest in myasthenia gravis because of its interaction with various anesthetic agents and because many myasthenics require a thymectomy to control their disease. Much has been written about the critical care management and...

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to clarify the clinical benefits of perioperative administration of high-dose prednisolone (PSL) combined with extended thymectomy on the long-term outcomes of 116 consecutive patients with generalized myasthenia gravis (MG). METHODS A retrospective review was conducted on 116 patients diagnosed with generalized MG who received alternate-day oral admini...

The influence of neonatal thymectomy on the behavior of hemopoietic stem cells of bone marrow and spleen was investigated by studying the colony-forming capacity (CFC) of these cells. Bone marrow cells (2 X 104) from neonatally thymectomized C3H mice, injected into lethally irradiated (850 R) recipients, showed a reduced CFC in relation to that of intact control donors. This decrease, which was...

The influence of neonatal thymectomy on the behavior of hemopoietic stem cells of bone marrow and spleen was investigated by studying the colony-forming capacity (CFC) of these cells. Bone marrow cells (2 X 104) from neonatally thymectomized C3H mice, injected into lethally irradiated (850 R) recipients, showed a reduced CFC in relation to that of intact control donors. This decrease, which was...

The influence of neonatal thymectomy on the behavior of hemopoietic stem cells of bone marrow and spleen was investigated by studying the colony-forming capacity (CFC) of these cells. Bone marrow cells (2 X 104) from neonatally thymectomized C3H mice, injected into lethally irradiated (850 R) recipients, showed a reduced CFC in relation to that of intact control donors. This decrease, which was...

Neonatally thymectomized rats of two strains inoculated with SV40 developed more tumors after a shorter latent period than control rats. About 17% of CBA mice thymectomized at 3 weeks of age devek>i>edtumors after room infection with polyoma virus. No significant difference was found between the incidence of skin tumors of neonataliy thymectomized and control rats treated with 7,12-djmethylbcnz...

To study the effects of plasmapheresis in preparation for thymectomy, two groups of 40 patients were selected from a sample of 286 patients with myasthenia gravis examined by the first author Group 1 included patients (15 male and 25 female; age range 8-64 yrs) who underwent thymectomy without previous plasmapheresis, whereas patients in group 2 (17 male and 23 female; age range 11-61 yrs) were...