Thoracoscopic single-port approach to primary hand sweating syndrome

Anyone sweats after exercise, but some people have sweat dripping down their hands even on a cold day, which experts say is a form of hyperhidrosis. If the disease has affected the daily life of people suffering from this disease, it can be treated by thoracoscopic minimally invasive surgery, with fast recovery, really long-lasting effect, and small chance of recurrence. Primary hand sweating is a phytoneurologic dysfunction disease, is a common phytoneurologic disease in young people in subtropical areas, it affects about 0.6%-1.0% of the population, and the Oriental is higher than the Westerners, and about 40% of the patients also have a family history of the disease (please note that is a family history of the family susceptibility, not necessarily will be hereditary). The mechanism is not yet known. Symptoms usually begin at a young age or during adolescence and last for the rest of the patient’s life. The disease is mild and does not require treatment. In more severe cases with a tendency to worsen gradually, beads of sweat may drip continuously along the fingers during an attack, especially when nervousness, agitation, fear, anxiety or anger are obvious, so it is also called psychogenic hyperhidrosis. Sweating can be continuous or intermittent and is triggered by anxiety, stress or fear. Although it has no direct effect on health, it can seriously affect the patient’s work, study, life and socialization. Patients are afraid to shake hands with others, and the manuscript paper is soaked with hand sweat when writing and other symptoms, which bring great inconvenience to patients’ work and life. Most of the patients come to seek treatment with depression and low self-esteem. At present, although there are many treatments for hand sweating, most of them are ineffective. The most common include oral sedatives, anticholinergic drugs, botulinum toxin A subcutaneous injection blockage and other methods, which have not been promoted due to its side effects, inaccurate efficacy and other factors. In addition, there are Chinese herbal lotions, antiperspirants, oral medications, and biofeedback, but they are often ineffective.In 1992, Landrenesu was the first to apply televised thoracoscopic partial excision of the sympathetic chain for the treatment of hand sweating with success. The accuracy of thoracoscopic surgery has been greatly improved with the help of camera technology, especially the magnified images it provides. Thoracoscopic surgical techniques have been developing rapidly over the past decade, and the effectiveness and safety of T2-4 sympathetic trunk amputation through 5mm and 10mm thoracoscopy for the treatment of hand sweating has been clinically proven. In practice, it is found that this treatment method also has a 60%-80% therapeutic effect on the symptoms of axillary odor and plantar hyperhidrosis. Thoracoscopic surgery for the treatment of hand sweating has been widely used in the clinic because of its minimally invasive, safe and effective advantages. With the maturation of thoracoscopic surgery and in-depth clinical research, thoracic sympathetic trunk dissection has been gradually replaced by 2-incision surgery from the initial 3-incision surgery, and the surgical efficacy has been continuously improved and the surgical trauma has been continuously reduced. At present, most medical centers in China use 10mm, 5mm or 1.7mm pinhole type thoracoscopes and instruments to perform thoracic sympathetic ganglionectomy with three or two incision surgery. Postoperative complications of TV thoracoscopic sympathetic trunk partial resection include Homer’s syndrome, compensatory sweating (compensatory weating (CS) in areas other than both upper extremities (trunk), pneumothorax, hemothorax, pulmonary atelectasis, lung infection, and pain. After more than 10 years of experience, the main medical characteristics of our hospital are: through the improvement of surgical technology, the use of more advanced and minimally invasive than ordinary thoracoscopy for the treatment of hand sweating – the use of axillary 0.5cm single-port thoracoscopic surgery, reducing postoperative pain, shortening the hospitalization time (an average of three days in the hospital, one day after the operation can be discharged from the hospital for observation), and to further satisfy the patient’s need for a “minimally invasive” treatment. It also meets the patient’s requirements of “minimally invasive” and “cosmetic” (the small incision of less than 1cm under the armpit is almost invisible after healing). In addition, we advocate that most patients undergo T3 and T4 sympathetic trunk amputation, which not only solves the problem of excessive sweating, but also greatly reduces the incidence and degree of post-operative complications of compensatory hyperhidrosis and excessive dryness of the hands, a technique that is currently recognized as the most advanced and the only cure for hand sweating in the world. We have had no complications such as Homer’s syndrome, pneumothorax, hemothorax, atelectasis, or lung infection. Only a few patients have compensatory hyperhidrosis in areas other than the upper limbs, but the probability of occurrence is very low and the symptoms are mostly mild. Compensatory sweating does not adversely affect the patient’s daily life, work and study, and most of the patients will recover spontaneously after half a year. Reviewing the patients with hyperhidrosis of hands and feet admitted to our hospital for more than 10 years, our findings confirm that the single-port thoracoscopic bilateral T2~4 sympathetic trunk amputation is safe and effective in the treatment of hyperhidrosis of hands and feet. Especially in recent years, the single-hole method of thoracoscopic bilateral T3~4 sympathetic trunk dissection for severe hyperhidrosis of the hands and feet carried out in our hospital, the therapeutic effect of the treatment is not only really reliable, but also significantly reduces and mitigates the postoperative complication of compensatory sweating. Thoracoscopic single-port method of treating primary hand sweating, the total cost from hospitalization to discharge is about 6-9 thousand RMB. (Pre-operative hand sweating) (Anatomical location of sympathetic pouch) (T3, T4 sympathetic pouch dissection) (Axillary 0.5-0.8cm “keyhole” incision) (Currently, most hospitals use the method of “single-hole”, but it is actually a “single-operation hole”). (Currently, most hospitals use the “single hole method”, but it is actually the “two-hole method”)