• Wobbe Bouma, Theo J Klinkenberg, and Massimo A Mariani.
• Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, University Medical Center Groningen, P.O. Box 30001, 9700 RB Groningen, The Netherlands. w.bouma@thorax.umcg.nl
• Interact Cardiovasc Thorac Surg. 2011 Feb 1; 12 (2): 106-9.

AbstractPrimary or essential hyperhidrosis is a disorder characterized by excessive sweating beyond physiological needs. It is a common disease (with an incidence of up to 2.8%) that causes intense discomfort for patients. Video-assisted thoracoscopic bilateral sympathectomy is an effective surgical treatment with high success rates and improvement in quality of life. In the last decade, the advantages of a single-port thoracoscopic approach have become clear. Problems with intraoperative bleeding management have been solved by using thoracoscopes with integrated electrocautery scissors. In this report, we describe successful transaxillary bilateral single-port thoracoscopic T2-T5 sympathectomy with the VasoView® device in three patients with palmar and axillary hyperhidrosis. The VasoView® device, with its integrated electrocautery scissors, was originally designed for endoscopic vessel harvesting in coronary artery bypass surgery, but it has proven highly effective for single-port thoracoscopic sympathectomy.

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