Minimally invasive and robotic-assisted thymus resection

Thymectomy for thymoma has traditionally been performed through a transsternal approach because of the excellent exposure that that the median sternotomy provides. Minimally invasive alternatives, such as transcervical thymectomy, video-assisted thymectomy, and robotic thymectomy, have not been extensively evaluated for this disease process. It is uncertain which patients may benefit from minimally invasive approaches and data regarding the oncologic effectiveness of these techniques remains to be established. However, given the excellent capability of these techniques to perform a complete and extensive thymectomy, there does appear to be a role for minimally invasive thymectomy in the treatment of thymoma.