Original article: general thoracicSeverity of compensatory sweating after thoracoscopic sympathectomy
Section snippets
Patients and methods
During a 6-year period (January 1997 to January 2003), 158 patients were treated at our institution for isolated or combinations of palmar or axillary hyperhidrosis or facial hyperhidrosis or blushing as shown in Figure 1. In the latter group, all patients suffered from blushing and 6 also complained of facial hyperhidrosis. Objective methods for quantifying sweating before surgery were not applied. The indications for operation were disabling hyperhidrosis or blushing as defined by the
Results
The median time spent in the operating room was 1 hour and 5 minutes (range, 35 minutes to 3 hours and 20 minutes). The median duration of the surgical procedure was 20 minutes (range, 10 minutes to 1 hour and 55 minutes). No conversion to open technique was necessary, and there was no operative mortality. One patient with persistent unilateral symptoms of palmar hyperhidrosis after sympathectomy was successfully treated at reoperation 1 week later. In 4 patients unilateral Horner's syndrome
Comment
Surgical treatment of primary hyperhidrosis is effective and is based on interruption of transmission of impulses from sympathetic ganglia to the eccrine sweat glands. A variety of different surgical approaches have been used over time with varying results 1, 4. The term “sympathectomy” is often used synonymously with “sympaticotomy,” which is the most commonly reported procedure during which the sympathectic trunk is divided but not resected. The more complex procedure of formal excision of
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