Thymectomy for thymoma and myasthenia gravis. A survey of current surgical practice in thymic disease amongst EACTS members

Interact Cardiovasc Thorac Surg. 2012 Jun;14(6):765-70. doi: 10.1093/icvts/ivs046. Epub 2012 Feb 27.

Abstract

Thymic disorders, both oncological and non-oncological, are rare. Multi-institutional, randomized studies are currently not available. The Thymic Working Group of the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery (EACTS) decided to perform a survey aiming to estimate the extent and type of current surgical practice in thymic diseases. A questionnaire was addressed to the thoracic and cardio-thoracic members of the society, and the answers received from 114 participants were analysed. High-volume surgeons cooperate more frequently with a dedicated neurologist and anaesthesist (P = 0.04), determine more frequently neurological scores pre- and postoperatively (P = 0.02) and do not operate on thymic hyperplasia in stage I myasthenia gravis (MG) (P = 0.04). High-volume thymoma surgeons more often use a transpleural approach for stage I thymoma < 4 cm (P = 0.01), induction therapy (P = 0.05) and are more likely to have access to a tissue bank (P = 0.04). Both in thymoma and MG surgery, cooperative prospective studies seem to be feasible in dedicated thoracic surgical associations as EACTS.

MeSH terms

  • Anesthesia / trends
  • Chi-Square Distribution
  • Cooperative Behavior
  • Europe
  • Health Care Surveys
  • Humans
  • Internet
  • Myasthenia Gravis / surgery*
  • Neoadjuvant Therapy / trends
  • Neurology / trends
  • Patient Care Team / trends
  • Practice Patterns, Physicians' / trends*
  • Surveys and Questionnaires
  • Thymectomy / trends*
  • Thymoma / surgery*
  • Thymus Neoplasms / surgery*
  • Time Factors