Yonago Acta medica 2008;51:55–60
Patient Satisfaction after Endoscopic Thoracic Sympathectomy for Palmar Hyperhidrosis
Hiroshige Nakamura, Tomohiro Haruki, Yoshin Adachi, Shinji Fujioka, Ken Miwa and Yuji Taniguchi
Division of General Thoracic Surgery, Tottori University Hospital, Yonago 683-8504 Japan
Endoscopic thoracic sympathectomy (ETS) for palmar hyperhidrosis was performed using a 3-mm small endoscope at our hospital, and we conducted a questionnaire for the purpose of studying the conditions and satisfaction after surgery. The subjects were comprised of 50 patients, of which 35 patients (75%) answered the survey. The average age of the respondents was 27 years old (range: 12–62 years old) including 13 males and 22 females and the average postoperative observation period was 33 months (1–114 months). The results showed the good effects of surgery in all of the patients for palmar sweating while patient satisfaction was 79.4 points, which concluded that ETS was sufficiently accepted as treatment for palmar hyperhidrosis. However, compensatory sweating (CS) developed in 97.1% of the patients, and 82.9% answered that they were disturbed because it was more than they had expected. This result makes us realize further the importance of preoperative informed consent for CS. The problem of palmar hyperhidrosis is very serious for patients, and hence it is important to give treatment with a thorough understanding of the effectiveness and problems of ETS for palmar hyperhidrosis according to the analytical results of this questionnaire.
Key words: compensatory sweating; endoscopic thoracic sympathectomy; palmar hyperhidrosis; patient satisfaction
