Abstract

AMARO HERNANDEZ, Alfredo; PEREZ NELLAR, Jesús  and  LLORENS FIGUEROA, A.. Características clínicas de 217 pacientes miasténicos clasificados de acuerdo con la histología del timo. Rev cubana med [online]. 1997, vol.36, n.3, pp.167-172. ISSN 0034-7523.

This is retrospective study of 217 thymectomized patients presenting with myasthenia gravis. From the patients of this series, 189 (87.1 %) had some histologic alteration and in 28 (12.9 %) a thymus without any pathologic abnormality was found. The thymus hyperplasia was the most frequent alteration (73.7 %), while the occurrence of a thymoma was less common (13.4 %). The main clinical characteristics found in the group presenting with hyperplasia were the occurrence of the disease in patients under 30 years of age, a remarkable predominance of female sex and a low frequency of complications from thymectomy. In most of the cases with thymoma, the onset of the myasthenia occurred after the fourth decade of life. In these cases we found more severe forms of myasthenia, a greater number of complications from thymectomy and a higher rate of postoperative mortality. The benefits of thymectomy over other treatment modalities are also highlighted.

Keywords : THYMECTOMY [methods]; THYMUS GLAND [anatomy & histology]; MYASTHENIA GRAVIS [immunology]; THYMUS HYPERPLASIA [surgery]; THYMOMA [surgery].