Friday, December 16, 2005
Safer ETS?
** Correction: I've removed the last line of the original posting. The original wording indicated that this new method of performing an ETS doesn't have the same side effects as the current methods - this is unknown and doubtful considering it's essentially the same surgery. Thanks to Gary for pointing this out. **
Warning: ETS (endoscopic thoracic sympathectomy) for Rosacea/Flushing/Blushing is generally considered to be a last resort measure only to be considered in the most serious of cases.
Per MedPageToday.com, there is a physician in Belgium that has been refining a new technique to essentially perform an ETS without actually having an invasive surgery.
From the article:
CHICAGO, Nov. 30 - Interventional radiologists in Belgium have devised a fast and highly effective cure for sweaty palms.
Using CT fluoroscopy to guide their needles, the radiologists have devised a percutaneous approach that they described as just as effective as surgical or endoscopic sympathectomy, but at just a fraction of the cost and with a complication rate approaching zero.
"The patient enters the CT with sweaty palms, we inject him, he rolls over and the sweaty palms are gone," said Hugues Brat, M.D., of Centre Hospitalier Hornu-Frameries in Hornu, Belgium, at a press conference at the Radiological Society of North America meeting here. "He is cured."
Link to article:
http://www.medpagetoday.com/Dermatology/GeneralDermatology/tb2/2227
According to the article this procedure is only done in Europe and is still quite experimental. The article does not mention ETS as a treatment for Flushing/Blushing, just Hyperhydrosis. Those who're scheduled to undergo ETS soon may want to wait a little for this to develop.
Warning: ETS (endoscopic thoracic sympathectomy) for Rosacea/Flushing/Blushing is generally considered to be a last resort measure only to be considered in the most serious of cases.
Per MedPageToday.com, there is a physician in Belgium that has been refining a new technique to essentially perform an ETS without actually having an invasive surgery.
From the article:
CHICAGO, Nov. 30 - Interventional radiologists in Belgium have devised a fast and highly effective cure for sweaty palms.
Using CT fluoroscopy to guide their needles, the radiologists have devised a percutaneous approach that they described as just as effective as surgical or endoscopic sympathectomy, but at just a fraction of the cost and with a complication rate approaching zero.
"The patient enters the CT with sweaty palms, we inject him, he rolls over and the sweaty palms are gone," said Hugues Brat, M.D., of Centre Hospitalier Hornu-Frameries in Hornu, Belgium, at a press conference at the Radiological Society of North America meeting here. "He is cured."
Link to article:
http://www.medpagetoday.com/Dermatology/GeneralDermatology/tb2/2227
According to the article this procedure is only done in Europe and is still quite experimental. The article does not mention ETS as a treatment for Flushing/Blushing, just Hyperhydrosis. Those who're scheduled to undergo ETS soon may want to wait a little for this to develop.
