Thymectomy may be performed in patients with myasthenia gravis. Certain factors can help identify patients who are more likely to benefit from the procedure.
Factors predicting a favorable outcome to thymectomy:
(1) absence of thymoma
(2) lower stage (Osserman) of disease
(3) female gender
(4) shorter duration of symptoms between diagnosis and the thymectomy
Some authors have found that younger persons had a better outcome than older patients, but Abt et al (2001) found that older patients (>= 55 years) had outcomes comparable to those seen in younger patients.
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