Efficacy of Percutaneous Radiofrequency Sympathectomy Versus Percutaneous Ethanol Sympatholysis in the Treatment of Primary Hyperhidrosis.

BACKGROUND

At present, there are many surgical treatments for primary hyperhidrosis (PH), but their medium- and long-term effects remain unclear.

OBJECTIVES

To evaluate and compare the efficacy of radiofrequency sympathectomy (RFS) and percutaneous ethanol sympatholysis (PES) in the treatment of PH.

STUDY

DESIGN

A retrospective study.

SETTING

This study was performed at the Affiliated Hospital of Jiaxing University, China.

METHODS

Patients who underwent RFS and PES at The First Affiliated Hospital of Jiaxing University for PH were retrospectively reviewed from January 2016 through December 2018 and were divided into an RFS group and a PES group. The Hyperhidrosis Disease Severity Scale  was evaluated at the following time points: before the operation, immediately after the operation, 12 months and 24 months after the operation. The effective rate, patient satisfaction, and compensatory hyperhidrosis were also evaluated.

RESULTS

A total of 94 patients diagnosed with primary hyperhidrosis were included (RFS group, n = 45; PES group, n = 49). RFS yielded a postprocedure 24-month effective rate of 53.33% in treating hyperhidrosis compared to PES (24.49%, P < 0.05). There were no significant differences between the 2 groups regarding patient satisfaction (P = 0.927) and compensatory hyperhidrosis (P = 0.711).

LIMITATIONS: This was a single-center study.

CONCLUSION

This is the first clinical study to evaluate the efficacy of RFS and compare it with PES in treating primary hyperhidrosis. RFS significantly decreased hyperhidrosis and had a higher 2-year effective rate compared to PES.