OBJECTIVE This prospective study aimed at investigating predictive factors for compensatory sweating after thoracoscopic sympathectomy. METHODS From 2000 to 2002, 80 patients (53 females and 27 males) underwent thoracoscopic sympathectomy to treat hyperhidrosis. Patient ages ranged from 12 to 56 years, and the mean post-operative follow-up period was 42.51 +/- 5.98 months. Patient satisfactio...

OBJECTIVE To determine the incidence of residual pneumothorax after video-assisted thoracic sympathectomy, with and without postoperative pleural drainage, and to evaluate the possible influence of this type of pneumothorax on postoperative pain within the first 28 postoperative days. METHODS All patients presenting symptoms consistent with primary palmoplantar hyperhidrosis and treated at th...

OBJECTIVES Endoscopic thoracic sympathectomy can predictably eliminate the disabling symptoms of palmar hyperhidrosis. Debate has ensued over competing techniques, in particular, cutting versus clamping of the sympathetic chain. We subjectively assessed the sweat severity in different areas of the body and evaluated changes in the quality of life in patients undergoing either the cutting or cla...

Surgical treatment for focal plantar hyperhidrosis is not yet well studied. Bilateral endoscopic lumbar sympathectomy (ELS), using the clamping method, was performed in 63 patients with focal plantar hyperhidrosis. Clamps were placed at L3 (46.0%) or L4 (52.4%), with one case at L2. All patients had improvement in foot sweating, with 96.6% achieving total anhidrosis. Five early cases had to be ...

I-VISCERAL PAIN. The pain of visceral disease is one type of pain in which sympathectomy is sometimes of value. It is not difficult to understand why this should be so; for pain nerves from almost all viscera travel in the sympathetic chain and pass through sympathetic ganglia on their way to the spinal cord. One might choose as examples of visceral pain that may be relieved by sympathectomy qu...

Complex regional pain syndrome, vasospastic disorders, and hyperhidrosis are chronic and debilitating upper extremity problems. Twenty-nine consecutive patients treated with thoracoscopic sympathectomy are presented. Diagnoses included complex regional pain syndrome, hyperhidrosis, Buerger's disease, Raynaud's disease, and peripheral vascular disease. All patients with hyperhidrosis had complet...

PURPOSE To report two cases of Horner's syndrome. One presented after the ablation of a schwannoma of the cervical sympathetic chain, the second after upper thorascopic sympathectomy for primary palmar hyperhidrosis. METHODS A 42-year-old man underwent excision of a left neck mass found during routine physical examination. A 20-year-old girl with axillary and palmar hyperhidrosis was treated ...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Thromboangiitis obliterans is a common peripheral vascular disease in India. This study was conducted to assess the efficacy of thoracoscopic dorsal sympathectomy as a treatment for Buerger disease of the upper extremities. METHODS Thirty thoracoscopic dorsal sympathectomies (17 left- and 13 right-sided) were performed in a tertiary medical center in 5 women and 20 m...

BACKGROUND The authors examined the effects of thermal stimulation on electrodermal activity (EDA) in patients with primary palmar hyperhidrosis (PPH). The authors hypothesised that temperature changes may induce abnormal sudomotor reactions because of simultaneous activation of sudomotor centres through thermal and emotional pathways, and compared patients before and after thoracoscopic sympat...