Continuous progress makes the treatment of hyperhidrosis a topic worthy of study
Hyperhidrosis is, by definition, the excessive sweating compared to physiological body thermoregulation and is much more common than anyone thinks. Primary hyperhidrosis is not a life-threatening disease but rather a serious medical condition that severely affects individual’s social, mental and working life, worsening quality of life (QoL).
Since people usually starts showing symptoms as teenagers, the social side of hyperhidrosis is predominant. That is why an effective and lasting treatment is advocated.
Hyperhidrosis therapies involve different medical disciplines ranging from dermatology to thoracic surgery. Unfortunately nowadays, the choice of therapies is not supported by any guidelines. Therefore, despite many papers in literature, International Hyperhidrosis Society recommendations are the most valuable instrument for clinicians.
On the basis that an all-round review on this topic is strongly needed, we decided to edit a special issue volume to set the state of the art in diagnosis and management of hyperhidrosis.
The world famous experts in epidemiology, physiology and etiology gave their contribute to better understand the onset of this medical conditions. As concerning hyperhidrosis management, we asked dermatologists to address two meaningful topics: diagnosis and no invasive therapies.
As concerning diagnosis the key points were how to accurately quantify hyperhidrosis severity, distribution and, above all, perceived discomfort. Indeed, it was our belief that QoL is closely related to the perception of the disorder rather than to the mere amount of perspiration.
As concerning the therapeutic phase, we involved different specialists to introduce the consolidated evidences and the latest news in the field of topic and systemic treatments.
As concerning surgical approach, world famous surgeons have been asked to report their conclusions to improve patients selection and sympathectomy outcomes in terms of sweating reduction and decrease in side effects. Lastly, we reported our experience showing how sympathectomy technique has been changed in last decades and related improvements in results.
Our aim is that the reading of this volume cloud provide a complete and ultimate vision of hyperhidrosis management. To conclude, it is our belief that successful therapy could only arise from medical-patient relationship aimed at defining effective discomfort and weighting benefits and side effects of each treatment, in accordance with patient will.
Acknowledgments
Funding: None.
Footnote
Provenance and Peer Review: This article was commissioned by the editorial office, Shanghai Chest for the series “Hyperhidrosis Management: from Diagnosis to Therapy”. The article did not undergo external peer review.
Conflicts of Interest: Both authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form (available at http://dx.doi.org/10.21037/shc.2019.08.06). The series “Hyperhidrosis Management: from Diagnosis to Therapy” was commissioned by the editorial office without any funding or sponsorship. FR served as the unpaid Guest Editor of the series and serves as an unpaid editorial board member of Shanghai Chest from Jan 2018 to Dec 2019. MS served as the unpaid Guest Editor of the series and serves as an unpaid Associate Editor of Shanghai Chest. The authors have no other conflicts of interest to declare.
Ethical Statement: The authors are accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
Open Access Statement: This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits the non-commercial replication and distribution of the article with the strict proviso that no changes or edits are made and the original work is properly cited (including links to both the formal publication through the relevant DOI and the license). See: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
Cite this article as: Raveglia F, Scarci M. Continuous progress makes the treatment of hyperhidrosis a topic worthy of study. Shanghai Chest 2019;3:55.
