Microinvasive resectional sympathectomy using the harmonic scalpel

Abstract.

Compensatory sweating remains one of the most unpredictable and debilitating complications of sympathectomy for hyperhidrosis. There appears to be a significant difference in compensatory sweating rates seen between the different techniques utilized to treat hyperhidrosis. Resectional techniques have historically resulted in excellent symptom relief with relatively low levels of severe post-op compensatory sweating. The advent of video-assisted approaches to the treatment of hyperhidrosis has led to other procedures including ablation/cautery, cutting and clipping of the nerve all of which report compensatory sweating rates between 70 and 100%.

We have developed a minimally invasive video-assisted approach to sympathetic nerve resection. We studied 486 patients with severe essential hyperhidrosis affecting the hands, feet, axillae and face in variable combinations, who underwent bilateral resection of T2 and T3 for hand, facial or head sweating. 100% relief of sweating was noted in all cases. For axillary sweating the addition of T4 resection has resulted in complete relief of axillary hyperhidrosis symptoms. In this patient population our overall compensatory sweating rate has been approximately 18% with significant compensatory sweating occurring in less than 2% of patients.