Myasthenia Gravis Support Group
Myasthenia gravis (MG) is a neuromuscular disease leading to fluctuating muscle weakness and fatiguability. The hallmark of myasthenia gravis is muscle weakness that increases during periods of activity and improves after periods of rest. Although myasthenia gravis may affect any voluntary muscle, muscles that control eye and eyelid movement, facial expression, and...
Thymectomy can be done open chest (like open heart) or minimally invasive robotic depending on doc's assessment and availability. Many doc's do open chest type as thymic tissue diffuses with age and it's important to get all of it. I don't know much about the robotic procedure because my hospital only offers the open chest type. Antibody type, severity, presence or absence of thymic mass and risk-benefit are all considerations. Recovery time depends on type. Open chest type usually takes a couple months. Best chance for improvement of symptoms occurs in first few years after diagnosis. Many find lessening or remission but a pretty large percentage find fleeting or non-existent remission. It can be a hard call if you don't have a thymic mass. In the end, I did not get one as docs felt risk-benefit was not in my favor and I had no thymic mass.
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/treatments/17555-thymectomy-for-myasthenia-gravis.
I think the worry about getting every bit of thymus material is when it is cancerous -- thymoma.
"The benefits of thymectomy are not realized immediately after surgery, thus patients will continue with their medical regimen after the procedure with the goal of weaning those medications over time. Individual response to thymectomy varies depending on the patient’s age, response to prior medical therapy, the severity of the disease and how long the patient has had myasthenia gravis. In general, 70% of patients have complete remission or significant reduction in medication needs within a year of the procedure. The other 30% of patients who have thymectomy experience no change in their symptoms. According to the American Association of Neurologists, patients who have thymectomy are two times as likely to experience remission as those who have medical treatment alone."
I was not a candidate for thymectomy in 2012 when diagnosed as I was an older man with no thymus abnormality. That has changed some and now even older people are considered. I think if I my current remission ends, and my doctor suggested it I might try the robotic version as it is either outpatient or overnight and recovery time is a couple of weeks.
Good Luck
Russ
unless we dont take the time at begining to do the proper research, we will not undertand the importance of maintaining our thymus intact and avoid unecessary interventions
thymus as to be cancerous or under extreme mass to have surgery, generaly you may have an inflamed thymus but that is not enough to have a surgery, iflamation can treated positively
when i had my mg over 1yrs ago , was told to consider intervention of the thymus,
i treated my in flamation with taken 20mgrs dayli of chelated manganese , and corrected the problem, and up to now iam still without any problems.
the thymus gland is a very important gland in our body, to loose it unecessarely
best of luck
Andre
Within one month of surgery, my symptoms disappeared, (extreme ptosis and mild weakness), and 10 years later I am still symptom and medication free.
After 10 years of acquired MG knowledge since my diagnosis, I am glad (for obvious reasons) I had the surgery, especially because I have not had to be on any toxic medications with their horrible side effects.
I’m also glad my surgeon only did the trans sternal method. He told me that it was very difficult to have a clear visual field when looking for thymic tissue using the robotic method. Also, “leftover” thymic tissue can generate more antibodies.
It’s my understanding that the thymus has no function after our puberty/teen years. I certainly haven’t missed it.
If an MGers health is steady enough, and their neurologist and cardiothoracic surgeon concur, I would think that many would want the surgery because of the better than average chance of improvement.