The palms of their hands, the soles of their feet, and sometimes their armpits, chest or back are constantly dripping wet. Now, surgeons at the University of Maryland Medical Center are able to use a minimally invasive procedure to cure the problem, which is known as hyperhydrosis. The surgery we perform to correct hyperhydrosis requires only one small incision on each side of the chest.
Patients have minimal discomfort.
Their hospital stay is less than 24 hours and they can return to work after one week, says Mark Krasna, M.D., director of thoracic surgery at the University of Maryland Medical Center and associate professor of surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. During the surgery, called sympathectomy, doctors cut the sympathetic nerve at a specific location in the upper chest, near the shoulder blade. The body s overstimulation of that nerve is believed to be responsible for excessive sweating. Dr. Krasna says the other functions of the sympathetic nerve, which relate to blood vessel dilation and pain sensation, are not disrupted by the surgery. Using videoscopic techniques, surgeons use scopes attached to a video camera that are inserted through small, one-inch incisions.