"We'll see patients in clinic and there will be water on the floor. It'll be dripping off their hands," explained Dr. Harold Burkart, a surgeon with the Mayo Clinic.

The condition, called hyperhidrosis, causes your hands and armpits to sweat excessively. It can be a big embarrassment for those who have it.

"I didn't really want to do things socially with other people because it was, like, sweaty and gross," said 15-year-old Ali Kerr, whose hands would soak the paper when she took tests in school. 

Ali tried medications to help keep her dry, but they didn't work. An operation at Mayo Clinic did. 

Dr. Burkhart says the excess sweating happens when an over-stimulated nerve chain along the spine sends too many signals to sweat glands in your skin.

To stop the sweating, Dr. Burkhart makes a small incision under each arm where he inserts a camera and small surgical instruments. At a specific point along the nerve chain, he cuts the nerve, interrupting the signals. That stops the sweating in more than 99% of all cases.

Burkhart says the procedure has already changed quite a few of his patients lives.

Hyperhidrosis surgery has come a long way in the last decade. It used to be that doctors had to make much bigger incisions to reach the nerve. Minimally invasive surgery has made it much easier on the patients.

For more information, visit www.mayoclinic.org/medical-edge.

Email To A Friend