Video assisted trans-cervical thymectomy A minimally invasive approach to treat non-thymomatous myasthenia gravis

Abstract

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 visualization, and discuss the pro and cons over the classic trans-cervical approach or thymectomies performed by VATS or sternotomy.