Evaluation of patients who underwent resympathectomy for treatment of primary hyperhidrosis.

Abstract

OBJECTIVES:

Video thoracoscopic sympathectomy is the recommended surgical treatment for primary hyperhidrosis and has a high success rate. Despite this high success rate, some patients are unresponsive and eventually need a resympathectomy. Few studies have previously analysed exclusively the results of these resympathectomies in patients with primary hyperhidrosis. None of the studies have objectively evaluated the degree of response to surgery or the improvement in quality of life after resympathectomies.

METHODS:

This is a retrospective study, evaluating 15 patients from an initial group of 2300 patients who underwent resympathectomy after failure of the primary surgical treatment. We evaluated sympathectomy levels of resection, technical difficulties, surgical complications preoperative quality of life, response to treatment and quality-of-life improvement 30 days after each surgery.

RESULTS:

Regarding gender, 11 (73.3%) patients were women. The average age was 23.2 with SD of 5.17 years, and the mean body mass index was 20.9 (SD 2.12). Ten patients had major complaints about their hands (66%) and 5 (33%) patients about their forearms. A high degree of response to sympathectomy occurred in 73% of patients. In 11 of these patients, the improvement in quality of life was considered high, 3 showed a mild improvement and 1 did not improve. No major complications occurred; the presence of adhesions was reported in 11 patients and pleural drainage was necessary in 4 patients.

CONCLUSIONS:

Resympathectomy is an effective procedure, and it improves the quality of life in patients with primary hyperhidrosis who failed after the first surgery.

• Authors: José Ribas Milanez de Campos, Lucas Lembrança, Juliana Maria Fukuda, Paulo Kauffman, Marcelo Passos Teivelis, Pedro Puech-Leão, Nelson Wolosker
• Journal: Interactive cardiovascular and thoracic surgery (Interact Cardiovasc Thorac Surg) Vol. 25 Issue 5 Pg. 716-719 (11 01 2017) ISSN: 1569-9285 [Electronic] England
• PMID: 29049566 (Publication Type: Journal Article)
• Copyright: © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery. All rights reserved.

Topics

• Female
• Ganglia, Sympathetic (surgery)
• Humans
• Hyperhidrosis (surgery)
• Male
• Quality of Life
• Reoperation
• Retrospective Studies
• Sympathectomy (methods)
• Thoracic Surgery, Video-Assisted (methods)
• Treatment Outcome
• Young Adult