Excessive Sweating / Sweat
Another term to hyperhidrosis. A look into the medical details will reveal that when it comes to excessive sweating there is dysfunction of the sympathetic nerve chain causing excessive pathological sweating beyond the physiological needs of the body in areas such as the hands, feet, face, armpits, and groin.
What is sweat?
A physiological mechanism in which the body secrets salt containing fluids to help dissipating heat which is produced by exercise and hot environments. It is part of the thermal regulation of the body. Hyperhidrosis is that clinical situation where the sweat production is beyond the physiological need.
There are two main sweat glands. Eccrine and Apocrine glands. The eccrine glands are known to be influenced by the sympathetic system. These eccrine glands are producing the watery type of sweat. The apocrine glands are producing more of an oily secretion of sweat. In the armpit the two types of glands are combined creating mixed results as it relates to the ETS procedure.
The ways to combat excessive sweating have come a long ways. Medical operations used to be complicated and risky. The only known life long / long term cure for excessive hand sweating is a medical procedure known as ETS or (Endoscopic Thoracic Sympathectomy). A good example of the procedure step by step can be seen at The Center For Hyperhidrosis with the slide show he has made there recently.
When one looks at different surgical options of sympathectomy there are two modalities. In the first one the segment of the sympathetic chain is either resected or coagulated and by that the segment is eliminated. A newer approach came in the late 90's which is the clamping method. In this method a segment of the sympathetic chain is being clamped with titanium clips creating the same end result as with the resectional methods. The clamping method does provide an ability to reverse the operation if the patient gets side effects which are impossible for the patient to tolerate. The reversibility option is not yet an etched in stone type of a fact but about 65% of patients are demonstrating reversal of their symptoms.
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