DR WU SKIN CLINIC
SHAVER-BASED OSMIDROSIS OPERATION
About
Do you have osmidrosis? It's a hereditary condition in which the sweat composition in axillae has special chemicals that emit odors. It's a common condition and many people use deodorant as a consequence. In Taiwan, perhaps from cultural customs, many patients wish to get rid of osmidrosis permanently. I have provided a shaver-based osmidrosis operation in the recent decade. After hundreds-operation experience and our relentless trials for improvement, I think my current method is world-class in both safety and satisfaction for my patients. The advantages of our current method are listed.
1. I have many international publications for my techniques in the operation.
2. The wound of our operation is very small, around 0.5 cm, and no scar was noted after the wound healed. You may feel strange about how we can assess the full axilla with such a small wound, but that is the advantage of this shaver-based method. I have clear objective evidence to show our results, which is competing among the best results surgery can deliver.
3. I avoid the drainage tube, the bolster (which involves using silk stitches to fix a big gauze to skin), and the tissue glue in the operation. It is not an easy job for the improvement but our current fixation method is so robust that patients can freely move their arms right after the operation. The freedom of postoperative duration is very much welcomed by my patients. In fact, the fixation method also improves the oxygenation of the axilla skin, which is critical in the postoperative healing process.
3. How good are we? I have personally contacted more than 30 patients one year after their operation to follow up the result. After the operation, 70% were completely free of the odor even in strenuous exercise and 30% had minimal odor in exercise. 97% patients were satisfied with our surgery (one patient reported a fair result). The data is comparable or even better than other reports using traditional excision, ultrasound liposuction or microwave-based methods for osmidrosis.
We are happy for our continuous effort to improve the surgery and believe you can seriously consider us even if you live abroad. The current surgery fee is USD $1000 covering everything, I know it is dirt cheap back in US although we had the state of art technique.
How does the procedure performed?
Under tumescent anesthesia, which is a diluted anesthetics with bleeding-control epinephrine and buffering bicarbonate, the axillae were punched with a 0.2 cm skin punch at the center. We used a thin elevator of 0.1 cm to dissect the whole subcutis layer of the axilla, including the all hair-bearing area. After that, we used a cartilage shaver, that has a rotating inner cannula, to shave all the subcutis fat which contains the odor-emitting sweat glands (the apocrine glands) until white and smooth dermis was palpated. After that, the detached axillary skin was sutured back with buried stitches which most is invisible from the surface. Gauze and bandage was applied. The total operation time was around 2 hours. Patient can go home after the procedure.
How about the postoperative period?
The patient should come back to remove the bandage the next day after operation. The patient can and should have a full-range movement of both arms to prevent stiffness of shoulders, that is commonly seen in other osmidrosis operation. The stitches should be removed one week after the operation.
How about the possible complications?
I had performed the operation for more than three hundred patients and no significant complication was observed. The current fixation method ensures a peaceful healing process that is most important in the operation. However, some uncomfortable sequel after the operation are predictable. That includes :
1. The axilla skin will turn numb and hard after the operation because healing of the subcutis wound will result in fibrosis. The skin of axillae will be darker especially for darker skin people. These side effects will last many months and will resolve at last.
2. The procedure will remove most axillary hairs permanently. It is welcome for most female patients but may be disturbing for male patients.
3. Slight limitation of the arm movement is predictable. Due to the healing process, the axilla will relatively become less stretchable and some patients will feel slight painful in full upward movement of the arms. The condition will also subside two to three months later.
Basically, despite of these temporary side effects, we have no patients to have long-term complication after the procedure. It is a safe and effective procedure to remove the osmidrosis.