Thymectomy for Myasthenia Gravis

To the Editor: Drachman's review¹ of the role of thymectomy in the treatment of myasthenia gravis raises several questions that need clarification. The view that anatomic variations make it impossible to remove the thymus via the transcervical approach in over 60 per cent of the patients is not based on direct evidence or experience with the technic but expresses a belief based on anatomic studies. Direct evidence contradicts this view: in a series of 41 autopsies after transcervical thymectomy in renal-transplant patients,² gross thymic tissue was identified in only one patient. There is further evidence, reviewed in 1975,³ that the.