Excessive Sweating

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

When it is clear that other hyperhidrosis options are not providing results, you might need to consider surgical options. You might be surprised to learn that there are few surgical options for the treatment of excessive sweating available. If you suffer from the condition known as hyperhidrosis or excessive sweating, then you should really begin by talking to your doctor about the remaining options.

Current surgical options for excessive sweating treatment include local removal of sweat glands to more extensive surgery options like endoscopic thoracic sympathectomy, also called ETS. ETS is not something usually recommended by doctors, unless it is a last resort. It is considered a last resort because of the serious side effects of the procedure, such as compensatory sweating.

A surgery is termed local because it is performed at the site of the excessive sweating. Currently, there are three basic local surgical techniques: excision, curettage, and liposuction. All three are used primarily to treat extreme underarm sweating. Additionally, each of these local surgical options involves the extraction of the sweat glands. For instance, in excision, the doctor cuts out the affected glands. Curettage, on the other hand, is less about cutting that it is scraping out the sweat glands. Liposuction is easy enough to understand; in this surgery, the sweat glands are removed with suction.

As far as excessive sweating treatment is concerned, it is for good reason that skin doctors discourage ETS as a surgery option for hyperhidrosis. In ETS, the physician is trying to impede the transfer of information via nerve impulses from the spinal column to the sweat glands themselves. As a result, the surgery will effectively deactivate the signals so the sweat glands will not function.

ETS is an invasive surgery since it requires cutting into the chest via the armpit and inserting a tiny camera. Additionally, one of the lungs is collapsed to give physicians access to the proper nerve paths in order to destroy them and provide a permanent excessive sweating treatment. If ETS is performed, both sides of the body will receive the same treatment. ETS has been used mostly for the treatment of severe palm and underarm sweating.

The compensatory sweating mentioned above is a form of excessive sweating that may be a side effect of the surgery. It will affect parts of the body including the face, the back, the chest, legs, abdomen, and buttocks. It is not uncommon for this secondary excessive sweating to be much worse in severity than the problem you had before surgery.

With the options listed, it might be a good time to think about what surgery might mean for you personally. As an excessive sweating treatment, surgery really should be the final option. Once you have gone through every other option for excessive sweating treatment including Botox injections, prescription antiperspirants, iontophoresis, and anticholinergics, you may then start looking into surgical ones.

Should be interested in surgery to treat hyperhidrosis symptoms, then you must talk to your doctor before making final decisions. There are real risks involved when you opt to undergo hyperhidrosis surgery. Don’t be hasty in making a decision about surgery, especially when ETS is concerned. The doctor will be able to explain the full range of options available to you so you do not make hasty decisions. You probably understand that spending a little time examining what is entailed with surgery may help you avoid a mistake with far-reaching consequences.

Tags: Hyperhidrosis // Add Comment »