Quality of life before surgery is a predictive factor for satisfaction among patients undergoing sympathectomy to treat hyperhidrosis

Purpose The objective of this study was to evaluate the postoperative quality of life (QOL) experienced among a group of 1167 patients who underwent video-assisted thoracoscopic sympathectomy (VATS) to treat primary hyperhidrosis, as compared with the presurgical QOL. Methods Between February 2002 and June 2007, 1167 patients who had undergone VATS were surveyed. The majority had presented with palmar hyperhidrosis (794 patients; 68%), while 340 (29%) had presented with axillary hyperhidrosis. Based on data obtained from the QOL protocol applied to all of the patients preoperatively, the patients were divided into two groups according to the level of their QOL: group 1 consisted of 312 patients (27%) with poor QOL and group 2 of 855 patients (73%) with very poor QOL. The same protocol was applied postoperatively, and five different levels of satisfaction were obtained. The same parameters were evaluated for both the palmar and the axillary hyperhidrosis subgroups. Results The patients with very poor QOL had much better results in terms of improvement in QOL than did those with poor QOL ( P < .05). The same result was observed for both the palmar and axillary hyperhidrosis subgroups ( P < .05). Conclusion The worse the preoperative QOL among patients undergoing sympathectomy to treat primary hyperhidrosis is, the better the postoperative improvement in QOL will be.