Relief for excessive sweaters

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There’s a clinical term for excessive sweating, especially in the hands. It’s called hyperhidrosis. Some sufferers try everything to make it stop. Surgery is often a last resort. But a Hamilton surgeon wants people to consider it before giving up.

Hyperhidrosis- or excessive sweating- can prevent people from living a normal life. Everyday interactions become incredibly stressful, and that stress can make the problem even worse.

“It becomes socially awkward so they’re avoiding shaking hands with people or they have to dry their hands all the time. or they can’t handle things because their hands are always wet.”

Some will get relief from Botox injections, or medicated creams. but, according to Dr. Wael Hanna, few consider a surgery, called Thoracic Sympathectomy. It’s done through a small incision. Doctors clamp the nerve that triggers the palms to sweat.

“We don’t cut the nerve anymore we just put a clip on it in case the patient wants to have it reversed in the future, we can always do that.”

The surgery does come with a potential side effect, called compensatory sweating, because sweat can no longer escape the way it used to, it may go elsewhere.

“You block the nerve, the sympathetic chain, the arms stop sweating but somewhere else in the body starts sweating. So that compensatory sweating or reflex sweating can happen mostly in the trunk or in the belly or in the thighs.”

Hanna says only 5% of patients ask to have the procedure reversed because of this. For the rest, it’s such a relief to have dry hands that they tolerate the side effects.

“When you see them in follow up, they shake your hand very confidently whereas before they would keep their hands in their pockets. So it changes their way of behaving, their outlook on life, their self confidence.”