The success rate of thoracic sympathectomy for normal young people is close to 100%. Most of the reasons for failure are due to past pneumonia, trauma or other causes of adhesions to the lung lobes and pleura, making it impossible for the operator to see the sympathetic nerve under the thoracoscope. This situation is not detectable before surgery, even with a chest x-ray. If the patient reaches the age of 40 or older, there are often cases of lung lobe and pleural adhesions or lung lesions that make the surgery difficult to perform and increase the failure rate. The difficulty of the surgery is also increased in some patients due to excessive obesity or oversized bodies. Patients who have undergone thoracoscopic surgery and had their hyperhidrosis stopped, only to have a relapse after a period of time, are able to undergo surgery but with a reduced success rate because adhesions in the pleura of the lung lobes may result after the first surgery, making it impossible to see the symphysis thoracoscopically. If there are no adhesions, the success rate is as normal. However, if the patient is not successful due to pleural adhesions at the first operation, he should not be operated again. Yanjun Zhu, Department of Thoracic Surgery, Air Force General Hospital Contact: 010-66928352