Treatment of hyperhidrosis.
The patient who complains of hyperhidrosis presents the physician with a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge. Patients who present with generalized hyperhidrosis are, in general, adults whose sweating occurs both during the waking and sleeping hours. Such patients require a search for a cause that may sometimes be as simple as a drug that they are taking for some medical disorder. Occasionally a systemic illness may account for the onset of hyperhidrosis and a thorough exam and appropriate testing may be necessary to identify the cause. Most patients with primary or essential hyperhidrosis present in childhood or adolescence and have a problem localized to their hands and/or feet. They have a physiologic disorder not a psychiatric or endocrinologic disease. A number of systemic, topical, surgical, and electrical remedies are available for the treatment of hyperhidrosis. Patients with hyperhidrosis of the palm or soles deserve a trial of conservative therapy, iontophoresis in particular, before aggressive surgical techniques that carry with them the risk of lifelong troublesome side effects are offered.
Stolman
L P
LP
University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, New Jersey Medical School, Livingston, USA.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001252:Astringents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001365:Axilla; D001905:Botulinum Toxins / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002648:Child; D018680:Cholinergic Antagonists / Q000627:therapeutic use; D003879:Dermatologic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D015171:Ganglionectomy; D006801:Humans; D006945:Hyperhidrosis / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy*; D007478:Iontophoresis; D013545:Sweat Glands / Q000601:surgery; D013562:Sympathectomy
D001252:Astringents; D018680:Cholinergic Antagonists; D003879:Dermatologic Agents; D001905:Botulinum Toxins