Quackery is the practice of fraudulent medicine, usually in order to make money or for ego gratification and power.
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Cedars-Sinai Hyperhidrosis Center

What happens to the other nerves in the chest [after ETS surgery]?

The sympathetic nerve chain has a built in "backup" system. Other nerves compensate for the function of the removed nerve region, and there are little or no long-term side effects.
Backup system? Drs. Martin Cooper and Robert McKenna, directors of the hyperhidrosis center at Cedars, do not elaborate. Apparently they have hit on a scientific discovery and are waiting to collect their Nobel Prizes.

If "other nerves compensate for the function of the removed nerve region", then sweating would return and the whole surgery would be a moot point.

". . .little or no long-term side effects"!?!? Who are they kidding? Their patients, that's who.
Here's the infamous Garza billboard in Houston, Texas, promising a cure. The ad fails to mention that ETS surgery "cures" hyperhidrosis by causing hyperhidrosis on a different part of the body. Some cure.

Honk if you spot the quack.
Another Surgery Center -- the treatment and cure of hyperhidrosis

Dr. Smith has a 100% success rate in curing palmar hyperhidrosis. Dr. Smith has a 100% success rate in curing underarm sweating by adding resection of the T4 ganlia[sic]. Dr. Smith has a 100% success rate in curing facial sweating. Dr. Smith has a 95% success rate in curing facial blushing.
Not to be outdone, this website also promises a cure. Any promise of a cure for hyperhidrosis is quackery. The average patient sweats more after ETS than before. This doctor's name was changed due to an ongoing legal dispute.
University of Maryland Medical Center

Moreover, the effect of the surgery is immediate.

However, most people report that they can deal with this [compensatory sweating] to get the benefit of curing excessive sweating in the hands, face, and underarms.
Some ETS effects, such as an increase in upper-body skin temperature, are indeed immediate. But many other effects come on gradually in the months and years following surgery. It is quackery to suggest that patients will fully understand what has happened to them right after surgery.

The phrase "curing excessive sweating" is especially deceptive. It leads the patient to believe that only the excessive sweating is targeted. ETS can permanently stop all sweating in specific body regions, including the head, a very undesirable result.
Southwest Centre for Hyperhidrosis

Before long [after ETS], patients are back to their normal daily activities, minus the excessive sweat.

Of course, the surgery actually has quite minimal side effects and a 95 percent or better chance for a permanent cure.

Although one lung at a time would need to be temporarily collapsed in order to reveal the sympathetic nerve bundle that stimulated the excessive sweating . . .

Are there any side effects?
Very few.
Here Dr. Curtis Dickman parrots the deception used by so many others - "minus the excessive sweat" - leading the patient to believe that only excessive sweating is affected.

Besides offering a permanent cure (obvious quackery), he repeats the above deception. The phrase "sympathetic nerve bundle that stimulated the excessive sweating" is clearly fabricated to convince the reader that the sympathetic nervous system is only involved in the excessive sweating. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Very few side effects? Who is he kidding? His patients, that's who.

Dr. Curtis Dickman >
Hyperhidrosis is certainly embarrassing. But it is not physically harmful in any way. In an effort to give hyperhidrosis genuine medical legitimacy, Dr. Dickman lists an apparent physical danger, the "danger of hands slipping from a child". While very wet hands are probably more slippery than normal, so are the extremely dry hands caused by ETS surgery. It is quackery to suggest that children will be made safer if their parents have ETS.

ETS patients suffering from severe compensatory sweating must change clothes throughout the day, and/or limit themselves to wearing black, so the suggestion that ETS will increase the wardrobe choices is a specious claim.

Hyperhidrosis presents a variety of problems — physical and emotional — for those afflicted with it:

* The danger of hands slipping from a child
* The embarrassment of shaking hands or holding hands
* The inconvenience of leaving everything you touch "wet" or "stained"
* The professional disappointment of not being able to touch a computer keyboard
* The drawbacks of not being able to wear make-up, or colors other than black and white
* The frustration of smudging ink and saturating writing paper with perspiration

Michigan/Midwest Center Treatment for Hyperhidrosis

Did you know that Elimination of Excessive Sweating, Primary Hyperhidrosis can be achieved through effective Minimal[sic] Invasive Treatment? It is Outpatient[sic] to allow you a quick return to life, work, recreation, school, confident handshakes and comfortable attire.
More comfortable attire after ETS? With compensatory sweating?? Not.
Welcome to Dr. Szarnicki's Hyperhidrosis Page

What happens to the rest of the sympathetic chain [after ETS surgery]?

There is tremendous overlap in function within the sympathetic chain, so there are no know[sic] long-term side effects.

With this treatment of choice, we can eliminate hyperhidrosis in a very short time on an outpatient basis with a superb cosmetic result.
Perhaps Dr. Szarnicki has been secretly chatting with Dr. Cooper and Dr. McKenna about their newly discovered "backup system"!

No known long-term side effects? Who is he kidding? His patients, that's who.
   Tea E. Acuff, M.D.

[The sympathetic nervous system] is our “fight or flight” system that was perhaps more appropriate many years ago. If someone harmful grabbed your hand, slippery fingers may have saved your life as you fought to get free. Today wet fingers may smear your papers at work, or give the impression that you are worried when you shake hands.
This medical doctor is clearly suggesting that the sympathetic nervous system is unnecessary, an evolutionary relic like the appendix or tonsils.

In case Dr. Acuff missed this part of med school, the thoracic sympathetic nerves are involved in heart rate, lung dilation, blood vessel constriction and dilation, goosebumps, fat burning, immune function, and more.

Honk.
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