Abstract

MARTIN GONZALEZ, Miguel Ángel et al. Result of thymectomy in epithelial tumors. Rev Cubana Cir [online]. 2013, vol.52, n.1, pp.25-32. ISSN 0034-7493.

Introduction: Thymomea describes the neoplasias that do not present evident atypia of the epithelial component; the clear cytological atypia indicated thymic carcinoma and surgery is the treatment of choice. The objective of this paper was to evaluate the efficacy of thymectomy aimed at patients with epithelial tumors in the thymus (thymoma, thymic carcinoma). Methods: Twenty six patients under study from January 2007 to January 2012, they were operated on after this diagnosis. Results: Myasthenia gravis was present in 16 patients (61.5 %), 11 of them (68.7 %) were removed their intubation after 12 hours of surgery. Total sternotomy was the main approach in 13 patients (50 %); in case of an over 7cm long injure, the approach was extended to hemithorax. Resection of lung, pericardium or both required more than 120min surgical time. Seven patients (29.6%) suffered complications, 5 of them (71.4 %) respiratory complications. Nineteen patients (73.9 %) had Masaoka's staging I tumors whereas 6 (23.1 %) had thymic carcinoma. One patient died (3.8 %). All these patients with myasthenia gravis showed complete or pharmacological remission, 2 experienced local relapse and no patient died in the follow-up period. Conclusions: Transsternal thymectomy is the treatment of choice. It is required to extend it to hemithorax when there is an over 7 cm long injure, with resection of the pericardium, the lung or both. In this case, the favorable results will be achieved in myasthenic patients and in the tumor control during the follow-up phase.

Keywords : thymoma; thymectomy; myasthenia gravis.