Thymectomy for myasthenia gravis: what's next?

Abstract

Thymectomy for myasthenia gravis (MG) has been performed since Alfred Blalock observed in 1936 that a young woman had remission of her myasthenia after a thymectomy for a cystic tumor of the thymus. Over the ensuing 80 years, multiple retrospective series of thymectomy for non-thymomatous MG have been published suggesting the potential benefit of thymectomy in patients with MG. However, the role of thymectomy in non-thymomatous MG remained a topic of controversy due to the absence of a randomized trial.