Comparative analysis of the clinical outcomes after thymectomy and drug treatment for myasthenia gravis in children

Objective To compare the therapeutic effects of thymectomy and only drug used in the treatment of myasthenia gravis (MG) and relevant factors. Methods A total of 58 children (5-14 years) with MG were followed up for 1 year, including 27 patients with thymectomy and 31 with drug treatment. We compared thymectomy versus drug treatment concerning the rates of remission, improvement, no change and deterioration of peripheral lymphoeytes (remission and improvement were regarded as effective). The association between the outcomes and the factors including age, sex, duration of disease, clinical stage in these two groups were also analyzed. Results The children who underwent thyrnectomy had significantly greater rate of remission (48.2%) and total efficiency (74.1%) than drug treatment i.e. 19.4% and 48.4%, respectively. Analyzed the effective cases after thymectomy and drug treatment, there were no significant changes of the components of sex and disease duration, while differences in outcomes were associated with ages and clinical stage of patients. There were no changes of peripheral blood T, B and NK cell populations after thymus excised in children. Conclusions In our study, thymectomy in the management of children MG was superior to drug treatment regarding clinical effective rate, especially for the children with 7-10 years and clinical stage I. And the populations of peripheral blood lymphocyte did not change after thymectomy performed in children.