General thoracic surgery
Intermediate-term oncologic outcomes after video-assisted thoracoscopic thymectomy for early-stage thymoma

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtcvs.2014.01.029Get rights and content
Under an Elsevier user license
open archive

Objective

To evaluate the impact on patient survival of video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) thymectomy for the treatment of early-stage thymoma, by comparing the intermediate-term oncologic outcomes with outcomes after open thymectomy.

Methods

Eighty-two patients who underwent complete resection of a Masaoka stage I or II thymoma between November 1998 and December 2011 were reviewed.

Results

The patients included 32 men and 50 women (median age, 57 years; range, 20-90 years), of whom 44 had stage I thymoma and 38 had stage II thymoma. Seventy-one patients underwent VATS, of whom 4 (5.6%) underwent conversion to open thymectomy; the remaining 11 patients underwent planned open thymectomy. Thirty-six patients underwent total thymectomy and 46 underwent partial thymectomy. Operative mortality was nil. The tumor stage, tumor size, and proportion of patients who underwent total thymectomy were not significantly different between the open and VATS thymectomy groups. The median follow-up period was 49 months (VATS, 48 months; open, 52 months). There was a significant difference between the 2 groups for the estimated 5-year overall survival (VATS, 97.0%; open, 79.5%; P = .041) but not in the estimated 5-year recurrence-free survival.

Conclusions

Our findings indicate that the intermediate-term oncologic outcomes after VATS thymectomy for early-stage thymoma are as favorable as outcomes after open thymectomy. Further follow-up is still required to evaluate the long-term outcomes after VATS thymectomy.

CTSNet classification

13
28

Abbreviations and Acronyms

CT
computed tomography
MG
myasthenia gravis
MRI
magnetic resonance imaging
OS
overall survival
PTMG
postthymectomy myasthenia gravis
PTx
partial thymectomy
RFS
relapse-free survival
TTx
total thymectomy
VATS
video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery

Cited by (0)

Disclosures: Authors have nothing to disclose with regard to commercial support.