Minimally invasive surgical treatment of hand sweating

  Hand sweating is a fairly common functional localized abnormal sweating of unknown origin. It is caused by an abnormal increase in sweating on the palms of the hands due to unexplained sympathetic overstimulation. Hand sweating is a serious problem in school, work, or social life, and most people with hand sweating have been suffering from it since childhood, and it becomes more severe in adolescence. Most people with hyperhidrosis have wet palms most of the time, and in severe cases, dripping sweat can be very damaging to the skin of the hands, and in severe cases, the palms may even develop symptoms of eczema dermatitis. The most serious consequence of hand sweating is the psychological trauma to the patient and the inexplicable psychological burden and fear when socializing.  Although hand sweating is not a serious disease, the constant sweating and the embarrassment it causes makes the patient helpless, agitated or panicked every day, causing great inconvenience to the patient’s work, social life and life, and seriously affecting the patient’s self-confidence. The psychological suffering of patients is difficult to understand by ordinary people.  There are two main types of treatment for hand sweating: medication and surgery. Internal medication is prone to side effects, while external application of medication is inconvenient because it has to be applied frequently and is difficult to eradicate. Currently, surgical treatment is the best and most convenient way. With the maturity of television thoracoscopic technology, thoracoscopic minimally invasive surgical treatment has become the preferred way to treat hand sweating. There are three main types of surgery: sympathetic nerve entrapment, sympathectomy and sympathectomy.  The advantages of thoracoscopic surgery are mainly the advantages of small incision, less trauma, less pain and less scarring. That is, it can be recovered quickly without affecting the aesthetics. However, in comparison of the three, sympathectomy is prone to the problem of postoperative compensatory sweating, i.e., the therapeutic effect of sympathectomy is not complete. Thoracoscopic thoracic sympathectomy is a precise excision of the nerve location according to the patient’s specific situation and sweating site.  After surgical treatment most patients’ symptoms disappear immediately after surgery. The cure rate is high and the return to normal work life is fast. The patient’s self-confidence increases rapidly and the patient is able to dissolve into a normal social life, interpersonal interaction and work soon. Psychometric studies have also found significant improvements in the mental health of patients after surgery.  Sympathetic nerve: Sympathetic nerve is an important part of the vegetative nervous system. Its main function is to make the pupils dilate, heartbeat accelerate, skin and visceral blood vessels contract, coronary arteries dilate, blood pressure rise, small bronchial diastole, gastrointestinal peristalsis weaken, bladder wall muscles relax, saliva secretion decrease, sweat glands secrete sweat, lissimus muscle contraction, etc. When the organism is in a state of stressful activity, sympathetic nerve activity plays a major role.  Compensatory sweating: It means that sweating in the upper body (above the nipple) almost stops after surgery, while sweating in the lower body increases significantly. The past surgical approach of thoracoscopic sympathectomy caused more complications such as compensatory sweating. The equivalent thoracoscopic sympathectomy minimized the incidence of this complication.