Mediastinal silicone lymphadenopathy revealed after thymectomy for autoimmune myasthenia gravis

Breast reconstruction is a very popular surgical intervention performed either for cosmetic reasons or after oncological resections. Even though silicone is considered to be an inert material, there are side effects that have been reported, such as silicone lymphadenopathy. In the case reported herein, a silicone lymphadenopathy of the internal mammary and the anterior mediastinal lymph nodes were revealed after a thymectomy for autoimmune myasthenia gravis. Silicone lymphadenopathy should always be part of the differential diagnosis of enlarged lymph nodes, in patients with previous cosmetic or oncoplastic surgery with the use of silicone gel breast implants. Special attention should be paid in case of previous breast cancer in order to rule out metastasis

Occurrence of thymic pathology in two families. Is familial screening justified?

The familial occurrence of thymic pathology, even though rare, is widely reported in the literature and mainly concerns cases of familial autoimmune myasthenia gravis. Other less frequent cases of familial occurrence of thymoma, thymic carcinoid and thymic hyperplasia have been described. It seems that the familial occurrence is poorly recorded and thus its prevalence is underestimated. We report two families whose members presented different forms of thymic pathology and discuss the necessity of screening programs in family members of patients presenting a thymic lesion