Robotic Sympathectomy for Hyperhidrosis

In hyperhidrosis, the body’s sweat glands overact. Excessive sweating results from this overactivity, and for many hyperhidrosis patients, managing symptoms can be difficult in day-to-day life. Both surgical and non-surgical types of treatment are available for hyperhidrosis. Surgical treatments include microwave sympathectomy (video-assisted thoracic surgery and robotic). Da Vinci Si and Xi robotic systems are used. This review summarizes the outcomes, complications, advantages, and disadvantages of robotic sympathectomy. We conducted a literature search using PubMed, Cochrane, and Scopus. After analyzing nine articles, we found that robotic sympathectomy decreased compensatory hyperhidrosis with similar outcomes to other procedures. Robotic sympathectomy also reduced complications of Horner syndrome and has changed minimally invasive surgery significantly due to the reduction in tremors by a surgeon’s hands to three-dimensional magnified views. It can potentially address the limitations of human video-assisted sympathectomy. However, the higher cost of robotic surgery, longer perioperative time due to the setting up of the machine, and higher training requirements are some of the disadvantages. The advantages of robotic sympathectomy are a reduction in compensatory sweating, better dexterity, loss of tremors, better visualization, and better accuracy. Although the overall success rates seem to be similar between robotic and video-assisted approaches, more studies are needed.