Blushing / Facial Sweating

Blushing & Facial Sweating:

By Dr. Reisfeld at The Center For Hyperhidrosis: (updated on 8/18/02 see new update below)

"These two clinical manifestations are also thought to be the product of an overactive sympathetic activity. It was also found out that patients who had sweaty hands and were treated with sympathectomy their facial sweating and or facial blushing were partially or totally cured. This brought with it the notion that patients who suffer only from facial blushing and or facial sweating could also be treated with sympathectomy. As a matter of fact this became a popular option to treat those cases. Experience has shown that patients who only have facial manifestations (blushing and or sweating) will develop more easily severe compensatory sweating which will render those patients unhappy ones. For that reason at present Dr. Reisfeld is screening those patients even more carefully before going ahead with the surgery. Patients who suffer from only those two entities should try different conservative approaches. Attempts to reduce the amount of patients who will develop severe compensatory sweating brought us to a careful consideration of the levels the sympathetic nerve is cut or clamped. Lowering the level of the sympathectomy has not yet given us conclusive results.

Facial Blushing also called social phobia or erythrophobia. Here there is abnormal reaction to otherwise normal social or functional stimuli in which the face and the neck area are reacting with sudden reddening of the skin. The exact reason is yet to be known but thought to be caused by an overactive sympathetic response. Usually this starts in the late teens.

Sympathectomy as a treatment for facial blushing started after surgeons realized that those patients who had simultaneously palmar hyperhidrosis as well as facial blushing, their facial blushing was also cured with the sympathectomy. The best results for blushing is achieved with those patients who have sudden bursts of facial redness triggered under social situations. Also a family history and some degree of hyperhidrosis is helpful in getting good results for facial blushing."

The above mentioned paragraphs describe historically the different steps that were taken surgically to the treatment of facial hyperhidrosis and or facial blushing. As time goes on more and more surgeons are opting against sympathectomy as an ideal treatment for facial blushing and or facial hyperhidrosis. Accumulating evidence from different parts of the world show that more and more patients who underwent sympathectomy for facial blushing and or facial hyperhidrosis are not happy with the end results.

At The Center For Hyperhidrosis Dr. Reisfeld believes at present the only indication for ETS is severe excessive hand sweating. There are some other surgeons who do not share this belief and continue to perform ETS for facial sweating and facial blushing. All patients are encouraged to have very serious and deeply comprehensive discussions with those surgeons who advocate the procedure.