We encourage you to contact your individual medical plan to determine eligibility for this procedure. For many people, the benefits of this procedure outweigh the risks. However, there are certain cases in which the surgery should not be performed. If you are interested in more information regarding this videoscopic surgical treatment for hyperhidrosis and facial blushing, we recommend that you first discuss it with your family physician. Thoracic sympathectomy is appropriate for individuals with symptoms of severe, incapacitating primary hyperhidrosis of the upper and lower extremities, especially after all the common medical treatments have failed.
Symptoms consist of excessive sweating at the armpits, hands, groin and feet.
Symptoms are so severe that the hands, as well as the axillae, may be dripping sweat, leading to difficulties encountered in business and social conditions. The results of the operation are quite dramatic. Both upper and lower extremities are warm and dry when the patient wakes up from anesthesia. Patients are usually amazed that their hands are warm and dry for the first time in many years. In cases when spontaneous blushing is present the condition is also usually corrected, as is profuse sweating of the face.