When it’s hot outside, everyone sweats a lot.  Most people expect to break a sweat when they exercise, but imagine sweating profusely even in the middle of winter when you’re not even exerting yourself.  Some people suffer from excessive sweating nearly all the time.  Their hands and feet sweat so much that many of these individuals dread socializing and may even have difficulty getting some jobs. 

            Vidal Maldonado was one of those people.   He’d lived with excessive sweat no matter what he was doing.  The 19-year-old's hands were almost always very cold and extremely wet.  Maldonado suffered from a chronic condition known as hyperhidrosis.

            Hyperhidrosis, or excessively sweaty hands, affects a large number of people.  The disease is debilitating enough that many adolescents refuse to go out on dates.  They have difficulty competing and achieving when they do written tests at school because when they become anxious their hands sweat to such an extent that the sweat literally drips off their hands.  In addition, their hands are cold and clammy and they are very self-conscious about putting their hands out and shaking hands with anyone or touching anyone.

            Maldonado knows how debilitating emotionally and socially hyperhidrosis can be.  He avoided meeting new people and making new friends because he feared being ridiculed.  “It affected my life in many ways,” he said.  “I avoided handshakes.  I didn’t really like to come into contact with many people, even like just friends, guys or girls, because I knew they’d expect a handshake and I didn’t want to shake their hand because I felt they would ridicule me.  It was difficult to even write on paper because the paper would get all wet.”

            In the past, there was little that could be done to help, but that is not the case any more.  In fact, a high tech surgical procedure can offer almost immediate relief.  Most of the time, these very unfortunate people are told to tough it out, to dry their hands or to use powders or some sort of talc to alleviate the problem, but these don’t work.  The fact is there is a simple surgical solution.  It is a relatively low-risk operation and it cures the problem.  Yet, for some reason this very simple surgical treatment is relatively unknown in Oklahoma.

            It was word of that surgical fix that led Maldonado to our office and soon after into the operating room at OU Medical Center for a procedure he hoped would at last bring him relief.

            The operation to treat hyperhidrosis focuses on the system of nerves in the body known as the sympathetic chain.  The sympathetic nervous system is responsible for shunting blood away from your skin to your vital organs to allow you to take care of an emergency like running away or fighting for your life.  When that happens, the hands become cold and excrete an enormous amount of perspiration.  In people with hyperhidrosis, the sympathetic nervous system is overactive, producing this response often.

            The surgery involves excising a small portion of the sympathetic chain, which lies on the inside of the chest on either side of the spine.  The procedure is done through three tiny incisions.  A small scope is introduced through one incision and surgical instruments through the other two incisions.  Using the scope, the sympathetic nerve chain can be easily identified.  Once identified, a small area of the chain is removed.  The process is then repeated on the other side.  The entire process takes about an hour and a half.

            The risk of the operation is very low.  Complications are very rare, but the relief to the patient is immediate and astonishing.  “The patients when they are put to sleep with the anesthesia, go to sleep with cold, wet hands and feet; and when they wake up from anesthesia, they have warm dry hands. It is a very moving sight to see them respond.  The first thing they do is they touch their hands.  They can’t believe that their hands feel warm and dry for the first time in their lives.”

            The surgical treatment of hyperhidrosis is typically done on an outpatient basis, and there is usually little discomfort following the surgery.

            For Maldonado, the procedure brought not only warm, dry hands at long last, but a brand new confidence and an end to his long-held fears and embarrassment.”