How to improve the efficacy of minimally invasive surgery for thymoma and myasthenia gravis?

  Indeed, thymoma and myasthenia gravis are rare diseases. In recent years, not only our Beijing Tongren Hospital, but also many hospitals have reported an increase in the number of cases admitted for these diseases. However, the lack of research and understanding of these diseases has resulted in a wide variety of treatments and different outcomes. The saddest thing is that most hospitals don’t even know if their treatment is effective. Anyway, it is, Beijing Tongren Hospital proposes enlarged thymectomy, and we talk about it; Beijing Tongren Hospital proposes extensive thoracoscopic clearance of anterior mediastinal fat and ectopic thymus, and we talk about it. But what is the real situation, that is not easy to say. Especially in the treatment of thymoma, many hospitals still resect thymoma alone, and postoperative severe myasthenia gravis or thymoma recurrence occurs, which has nothing to do with these hospitals or doctors. At the “Surgery Hour” held in Beijing on November 28, Director Shi Bin of China-Japan Friendship Hospital made some evocative remarks and gave high praise to our work. In his review, he said: Beijing Tongren Hospital is really the leader in treating myasthenia gravis and thymoma in China. A lot of research has been made not only on the volume of minimally invasive surgery for thymoma and myasthenia gravis and the thoroughness of resection and clearance, but also on the theory of minimally invasive surgical modality selection and individualized treatment. He also talked about the fact that there are other large hospitals in Beijing that also carry out minimally invasive surgery for myasthenia gravis, and that they should make greater efforts in the research on the efficacy. This reminds us of the inconsistent statement of a domestic expert who said in his subject evaluation in January that his hospital had performed more than 2000 cases of minimally invasive surgery for myasthenia gravis, only that no one had bothered to observe the efficacy. In another academic meeting afterwards, he said that in 2013 his hospital had carried out minimally invasive surgery for myasthenia gravis and was able to treat more than 100 cases per year, and could clean up the fat in the neck all the way through thoracoscopy. This kind of pomposity really harms our medical and academic community. If you don’t know the efficacy of the surgery, what else do you do. Especially in the treatment of severe myasthenia gravis and thymoma surgery.  Although thymectomy has been recognized as a more effective method of treating myasthenia gravis, the rate of complete remission after surgery varies greatly from region to region and from hospital to hospital, with 15-65% complete remission rates reported at home and abroad. The reason for such a large difference is that different thymectomy surgical approaches remove the thymus and remove the ectopic thymus within the anterior mediastinum and the adipose tissue of the cervical root to different degrees. In the case of thymoma surgery, the thymus itself cannot be removed, and there is a risk of severe muscle weakness or a high rate of thymoma recurrence after surgery.  We propose individualized minimally invasive treatment of thymoma, myasthenia gravis and multidisciplinary combined treatment of myasthenia gravis, which not only meets the requirements of patients’ aesthetics, but also improves the medium and long-term efficacy of surgical treatment of myasthenia gravis under minimally invasive conditions, so that patients can be treated satisfactorily. Its value has been fully confirmed by a large number of clinical applications and subject studies. He has been invited to speak at academic conferences at home and abroad for many times, and has been widely recognized by domestic and foreign colleagues; he has published papers related to this topic in SCI journals (Onco Targets Ther, Ann Thorac Surgery and Ann Surg Onco) and Chinese journals (Chinese Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, Chinese Journal of Surgery and Chinese Journal of General Practitioners) to clarify his views. Since 2014, we have been promoting this technology through minimally invasive training courses, one-on-one on-site instruction, counterpart support, and room visits to promote minimally invasive surgery for the treatment of myasthenia gravis, which will largely improve the treatment of myasthenia gravis in hospitals at all levels for the benefit of patients with myasthenia gravis.