[Thymectomy in myasthenia gravis---experience with 173 surgical patients].

Over a 13-year period, 173 patients with myasthenia gravis--69 per cent men and 31 per cent women--undergo operative treatment in the clinic of thoracic surgery with oncology at the Military Medical Academy--Sofia. Most patients present generalized form of the disease. The operation consists in longitudinal sternotomy.

[The place and extent of thoracotomy in gunshot chest wounds].

Indications are presented for operative intervention, as well as some of the more important debatable problems in the surgical tactics and approach to firearm thoracic injuries. Emphasizing the need of differential approach and thorough preoperative preparation, the authors outline the modern trends in their operative management. On the basis of clinical, functional and X-ray methods of examination, the results of pneumorrhaphy in isolated lung injuries are evaluated.

[A stabilizing plastic repair method for reconstruction in extensive complete defects of the chest wall].

Experience is recorded with the application of a new operative method for combined plastic-stabilizing reconstruction of the thoracic wall in complete defects larger than 8-10/10 cm (greater than 80 cm2). The method consists of covering in layers the defect with Ampoxen, auto-rib and skin-muscle flap. Nine patients were operated: 2 with recurrent tumors of the mammary gland, 2 with metastatic thoracic wall tumors, 2 with osteoradionecrosis.

[Suppurative complications following sternotomy].

For a ten-year period when 366 median sternotomies have been performed, 206 of them in cardiac operations under bypass, there were 15 dehiscences of the sternum (4.09 per cent). The method of early revision with subsequent one-story suture and persistently washing aspiration drainage was applied for treatment of grave complication.