An investigation into the effect of axillary surgery on ipsilateral axillary sweating--a pleasing 'complication' or a potential treatment for hyperhidrosis?
Although there had not been complaints of excessive sweating pre-operatively, it was noticed incidentally that a large proportion of patients who had undergone axillary lymph node sampling or clearance for breast carcinoma seemed to report ipsilateral sweat loss as a pleasing 'complication'. We interviewed 65 consecutive patients who had all had axillary dissections performed by the same surgeon's technique; the interviews were held 2-102 months after their operations. In 36 cases, patients reported no change in axillary sweating (mean 35 months), whereas 29 patients reported a decrease (mean 50 months). This result was statistically significant at the 95% confidence interval (p=0.022).
Subramanian
A
A
St. Peters' Hospital, Guildford Road, Chertsey, Surrey KT16 OPZ, UK. ashsubramanian@hotmail.com
Starr-Marshall
K J
KJ
Layer
G T
GT
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D018931:Antineoplastic Agents, Hormonal / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001365:Axilla; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007007:Hypohidrosis / Q000209:etiology*; D008197:Lymph Node Excision; D008408:Mastectomy; D008875:Middle Aged; D013546:Sweating; D013629:Tamoxifen / Q000627:therapeutic use
D018931:Antineoplastic Agents, Hormonal; D013629:Tamoxifen