FACIAL SWEATING AND BLUSHING

Some people suffer with severe facial blushing and sweating. The symptoms may affect just the face or include the head, neck and upper chest. Excessive facial blushing often results in extreme social embarrassment for patients. If this is associated with excessive sweating as well, their face, head, hair and neck may be dripping with sweat. Blushing can vary from redness of the face to red blotches appearing over the face, neck and upper chest. Sometimes these symptoms are accompanied by a sensation of having a hot flush. All of these symptoms are usually precipitated by social interaction which results in loss of confidence, damage to personal relationships and compromise to employment prospects.

Relatively recently, it has been recognised that patients suffering from facial blushing and sweating may respond to Endoscopic Thoracic Sympathectomy (ETS), an operation which has been performed routinely for treatment of palmar hyperhidrosis. The results are certainly not as good as they are for hand sweating, but about 70% patients with severe facial blushing have a favourable response to ETS. In addition to all the potential side-effects of ETS, patients in whom this operation is used to treat facial blushing must be aware of the potential failure rate. Also, the operation may be more successful on one side of the face than the other which can give rise to a "Harlequin effect". However, facial blushing and sweating cannot easily be treated by other means and for many patients with this condition in whom life is unbearable, ETS may be the only option despite the results of the operation being less than perfect in some patients.

 

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