[Long-term efficacy of enlarged thymectomy in treatment of myasthenia gravis and relevant influencing factors: study of 410 cases].

Objective: To investigate the long-term efficacy of enlarged thymectomy in treatment of myasthenia gravis (MG) and relevant influencing factors.

Methods: 546 patients with MG underwent enlarged thymectomy and were followed up for 28 months (6 to 85 months). Effective follow-up data were obtained from 410 out of the 546 patients. The clinical data of these 410 patients, 199 males and 211 females, were analyzed.

Results: The remission rate was 42.9% and the effective rate was 82.3%. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed that short duration of preoperative period was an independent factor of the surgical curative effect (odds ratio = 0.310, P = 0.006) and sex, age, Osserman classification, pathologic type of thymus seemed to be irrelevant to the surgical curative effect.

Conclusion: Thymectomy is an effective measure for MG and shows a better prognosis in the patients with shorter illness duration.