Clinical Comparison Of Thoracoscopic Thymectomy Versus Open Procedure For Early-stage Thymoma

Objective: To evaluate the clinical effect of thoracoscopy for thetreatment of early satge thymoma.Methods: From June2008to December2012, video-assisted thoracoscopicsurgery（VATS group）was performed in24cases with thymoma. The operativeprocedures，postoperative complications，remission of MG,perioperativemortality and oncological outcomes of these patients were compared with19cases of trans-sternal open thymectomy（OT group）.Results: Compared with the OT group,VATS group had significantly shorteroperation time, less blood loss，shorter postoperative hospital stay，shorter chest tube duration and less chest drainage amount(P<0.05). TheICU cases rate in VATS group was less than OT group with no significantdifference(P>0.05).The total postoperative complication of VATS groupwas0%，which was less than OT group(15.9%) with no significantdifference(P>0.05).The mean follow-up was3to54months. The effectiveremission rate of thymomatous MG patients was77.8%in VATS group，whichwas similar to that in the OT group（75.5%,P>0.05）.VATS group had arecurrence or metastasis rate of0%,which was better than OT group with5.9%, and there was no significant difference between the twogroups(P>0.05). The total survival rate of VATS group was100%,which wassimilar to that in the OT group(94.1%,P>0.05).Conclusions:Thoracoscopic thymectomy is a safe，feasible，effective andminimally invasive method for the treatment of thymoma;it has lesscomplications and quick recovery and has a similar short-term outcome toconventional open thymectomy．...