SUBCUTANEOUS CURETTAGE FOR THE TREATMENT OF AXILLARY HYPERHIDROSIS

Axillary hyperhidrosis is a functional abnormality of the eccrine swea t glands that causes discomfort and sometimes even social stigmatisati on in the afflicted patient. The cause of genuine hyperhidrosis is unk nown and therefore no specific corrective therapy is available and con servative treatment often fails. Thus, local surgical intervention is indicated and various techniques have been described. We present our r esults on 52 patients treated by subcutaneous curettage that were foll owed up at a median of 78 months. Postoperative complications were, bl eeding in three patients, seroma formation in one and prolonged wound healing in another patient. Except for one axillary revision because o f bleeding, all complications were managed by local measures and heale d ad integrum. In 78.8% of the patients a good or very good reduction of axillary perspiration was seen, 19.2% had a moderate reduction, and only one patient experienced a complete recurrence. Subjective assess ment revealed a significant reduction of sweating at rest and under ph ysical stress. Thus 82.6% of the patients were satisfied with the resu lt of the operation. We conclude that subcutaneous curettage for axill ary hyperhidrosis represents an efficient treatment with a good cosmet ic outcome and a low complication rate.