Sympathicotomy Under Local Anesthesia: A Simple Way to Treat Primary Hyperhidrosis

Abstract

General anesthesia has been the standard approach for sympathicotomy to treat primary hyperhidrosis. Sympathicotomy through thoracoscopic guidance is a straightforward procedure with a short operation time. Therefore we propose using local anesthesia for the procedure. The advantages of local anesthesia include avoiding endotracheal intubation and systemic anesthetics, and allowing immediate assessment by means of verbal communication with the patient. We effectively treated primary hyperhidrosis in 3 patients by thoracoscopic sympathicotomy under local anesthesia. (Ann Thorac Surg 2010;90:1730-1) (C) 2010 by The Society of Thoracic Surgeons