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MINI REVIEW article

Front. Surg.
Sec. Thoracic Surgery
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fsurg.2024.1457029
This article is part of the Research Topic Surgical Treatment of Thymic Epithelial Tumor and Myasthenia Gravis View all 5 articles

The Clinical Significance of Open Versus Minimally Invasive Surgical Approaches in the Management of Thymic Epithelial Tumors and Myasthenia Gravis

Provisionally accepted
Nathan J Alcasid Nathan J Alcasid 1,2*Ivana Vasic Ivana Vasic 1,2Phillip G Brennan Phillip G Brennan 1,2Jeffrey B Velotta Jeffrey B Velotta 1,3,4
  • 1 University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, United States
  • 2 University of California, San Francisco-East Bay Surgery, Oakland, United States
  • 3 Kaiser Permanente Northern California, Division of Thoracic Surgery, Oakland, United States
  • 4 Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine, Department of Clinical Science, Pasadena, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Though advancements have been made in the pharmacologic treatment of myasthenia gravis (MG), surgical resection is not only an option as a last line of defense for those patients who do not respond to medical therapy but also remains vital for those with thymic epithelial tumors (TET). While prior studies have shown the potential superiority of minimally invasive approaches via robotic-and video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (RATS/VATS) for thymectomy compared to open surgery, in the setting of malignancies, this outcome delineation is controversial. As RATS/VATS may be associated with less post-operative complications in the treatment of TET, some surgeons argue that the open approach is necessary for complete resection (R0 resection) and to prevent potential seeding of the malignancy. In this review article, we will compare the efficacy and implications of the different surgical approaches and techniques themselves in performing a thymectomy for autoimmune and oncologic pathologies.

    Keywords: Thymectomy, Thymoma, Myasthenia Gravis, Mediastinum, VATS (video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery), RATS (robotic-assisted thoracoscopic surgery

    Received: 29 Jun 2024; Accepted: 25 Nov 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Alcasid, Vasic, Brennan and Velotta. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Nathan J Alcasid, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.