MULTIVARIATE DETERMINANTS OF THE NEED FOR POSTOPERATIVE VENTILATION IN MYASTHENIA-GRAVIS

Purpose: Following transsternal thymectomy, up to 50% of patients may require postoperative ventilation. The aim of this study was to identi fy the variables most useful in predicting the myasthenic patient who needs postoperative mechanical ventilation. Methods: We applied multiv ariate discriminant analysis to preoperative physical, historical, lab oratory and intraoperative data of 51 myasthenic patients who underwen t transcervical-transsternal thymectomy to select those variables, mos t useful in predicting the postoperative need for mechanical ventilati on. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was also used to describe the discrimination abilities and to explore the trade-offs b etween sensitivity and specificity of the model. Results: Discriminant analysis identified seven risk factors that correlated with the need for postoperative ventilation: