Surgery for thymic tumor involving major vessels remains challenging; however, complete surgical resection is recommended when the resected major vessels can be reconstructed safely. Two cases are described in this report. In Case 1, complete surgical resection followed by reconstruction using an autologous pericardial patch was achieved owing to the temporary bypass assist. In Case 2, complete surgical resection followed by reconstruction using an autologous pericardial roll was achieved owing to the cardiopulmonary bypass assist. Complete surgical resection of thymic tumor involving the major veins can be achieved safely with appropriate extracorporeal circulatory assist. Autologous pericardium is useful for venous reconstruction.
Shirakawa et al. (Thu,) studied this question.