A Mother with A Tumour Close To Her Heart: A Case Report on the Management of a Thymoma in Pregnancy

Thymomas are seldom encountered in the general population, and even more-so uncommonly encountered in pregnancy. Patients usually present with either local, compressive symptoms such as shortness of breath or are asymptomatic and diagnosed incidentally on imaging studies. A subset of them may even present in association with myasthenia gravis. Management of pregnant patients with thymomas are challenging and require multi-disciplinary care involving thoracic surgeons, maternal-fetal medicine specialists, neonatologists and anaesthesiologists to facilitate safe progression of the pregnancy.  We discuss the management of a patient that presented to us with a B۲-type thymoma in pregnancy who successfully underwent a video-assisted thoracoscopic excision of the mass and went on to have a safe delivery. The optimal way forward in managing patients with thymomas in pregnancy would be through early recognition of the condition and instituting a mutlidisciplinary approach.

Keywords:

Thymoma , B۲-Type Thymoma , Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) , Thoracic surgery , maternal fetal medicine