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Uniportal VATS Thymectomy for Myasthenia Gravis
Kamran Ali , Shaiwal Khandelwal ,Narendra Agarwal, Ali Zamir Khan
Medanta the Medicity hospital, Gurgaon
Introduction: Advances in minimally invasive thoracic surgery have encouraged more and more Neurologists to refer myasthenic’s to thoracic surgeons for offering thymectomy as a potential cure for their disease. We present our experience with Uniportal thymectomy.
Materials and Methods: A 38 year Afghani national with Myasthenia gravis under treatment for last 2 years was referred to our team by our Neurologist. CT scan showed no evidence of a mediastinal mass. Uniportal VATS was performed through a single incision of 3.0 cm and the thymus gland along with entire anterior mediastinal fat was resected. Chest drain insertion was done through the same incision
Results: The total operative time was 132 minutes and there was minimal blood loss. Patient was extubated on table and sent to ICU. Chest drain was removed on POD1 and patient discharged on POD2 with oral analgesics.
Conclusion: VATS Thymectomy is now an acceptable technique for complete thymectomy for Myasthenia gravis and avoids a big sternotomy. Uniportal or Single-incision VATS is a step forward in this direction. It offers a quicker, less painful recovery and an excellent cosmesis without compromising the principles of thymic resection.