Is ETS surgery as effective in treating plantar hyperhidrosis (of the feet) as it is for palmar hyperhydrosis (of the hand)?
Excessive sweating of the soles of the feet goes “hand in hand” with excessive sweating (hyperhidrosis) of the palms and underarms. Unlike palmar hyperhidrosis, however, plantar hyperhidrosis does not have a surgical procedure that is reliably successful. It has been my clinical experience that plantar hyperhidrosis stays the same in one third of the patients after thoracic sympathectomy. It improves in a third of the patients and gets worse in the remaining third of patients. Treatment options for plantar hyperhidrosis include topical agents and iontophoresis.
