Sympathectomy for Raynaud disease / 中国微创外科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To study the effect of thoracoscopic sympathectomy and/or chemical lumbar sympa- thectomy performed on patients with Raynaud disease. Methods Five patients, 1 male,4 females, aged from 30 to 65(mean 45. 3 ). Raynaud phenomenon appeared only on both hands in one patient, only on feet with a toe gangrene in another one , the other 3 cases on all limbs. Thoracoscopic symathectomy was performed for those whose hands were af- fected and chemical lumbar sympathectomy(12-3 ) was pererformed for those whose feet were affected. Results All patients were followed up from 12 to 48 months(mean 24 months). All experinced improvement with hands warm and satisfactory results after thoracoscopic sympathectomy. However, the original symptoms reccurred in two patients after postoperatire six months. All 4 patients performed chemical lumbar sympathectomy experienced improved symptoms with feet warm and satisfactory results and the symptoms did not recur up to now. The sympathectomy showed different results for hands and for feet. Conclusions Thoracoscopic sympathectomy for hands affected by Raynaud disease has efficiency temporarily, but is not satisfactory. The chemical lumbar sympathectomy for the feet affected by Raynaud disease has dramatically disappearence of symptoms and the results are very good