VATET video assisted thoracoscopic extended thymectomy

The Authors describe the surgical technique of extended thymectomy by cervi cotomy and bilateral thoracoscopy (VATET), created in 1994 for the patients candidates to the surgical treatment related with myasthenic disease, as a result of a collaboration with Neurological Institute C. Besta of Milan. In six years 246 patients underwent Vatet with success; in these pages is e xplained the rational of the surgical technique and the favorable results o btained for that we believe this is a usable technique, nor: only for myast enic patients but, with some limitations, also in the case of thymoma.