Tracy,

Your doc is only going to give you a recommendation. It is going to be your decision.

In my case, I have severe, generalized MG that is very unstable and my thymus looked to be 1x3cm on 2 scans, an MRI and a CT w/o contrast. I decided to have the surgery since meds were not working to stabilize me, even at high doses(PRED) and frequencies (IVIG). When they removed it, it was actually 6x10cm!! Very surprising and very abnormal. I am glad I did it since a gigantic thymus spitting out antibodies is not going to be helpful for my MG.

It is unusual for a thymus to grow back from what I have heard and getting it totally removed via the sternum is your best bet to cover all your bases if you are really worried about residual tissue since the thymus is spread out like a butterfly and they really don't know what they are dealing with until they get in there. Doctors who perform thymectomies 3-5/year are said to be very well experienced since it is an uncommon surgery. My surgeon does 15/year and she still found mine to be surprising....

Every case is different so look at what is going on for you to help you decide...debra