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What happens in ETS?
Endoscopic Thoracic Sympathectomy (ETS) works by cutting, clipping, or destroying a part of the sympathetic nerve chain in your upper chest. This chain controls certain involuntary functions, including sweating — especially in the face, hands, armpits, and upper body.
By disrupting these nerves, ETS can dramatically reduce sweating in the targeted area (like hands or armpits).
Why does compensatory sweating happen?
The human body tries to maintain overall thermal regulation. Sweating is one of your main cooling mechanisms.
When ETS blocks sweating in one part of your body, your brain still senses body heat rising, but now fewer sweat glands are available in the treated areas. So, your body “redirects” or increases sweating in other areas to make up for the lost capacity — this is compensatory sweating.
Common compensatory areas:
- Back
- Chest
- Abdomen
- Thighs
- Buttocks
- Legs
Mechanism (a bit more technical):
- The hypothalamus (your body’s thermostat) keeps trying to regulate temperature.
- After ETS, feedback from blocked areas is disrupted.
- The body tries to overcompensate to maintain safe body temperature.
- Other sweat glands (that still have normal nerve input) are "overused."