Considering Endoscopic Thoracic Surgery

Tommy · Guest

I just recently learned of this thing called Endoscopic Thoracic
Surgery. This procedure is said to eliminate or reduce symptoms such
as facial blushing, hyperhidrosis, etc.

I have suffered from frequent severe episodes of facial blushing my
entire life, brought on by social phobia/anxiety. I was referred to
this procedure by my doctor, as an alternative to life-long
medications such as inderal to control blushing.

Has anyone heard of or experienced this surgery? I'm hearing only
wonderful claims of its effectivness, and I am somewhat skeptical to
say the least.

jjj555 · Posted: Sat Jan 31, 2004 10:22 am Post subject:

I am in the same situation as you Tommy - cosidering Endoscopic Transthoracic Sympathectomy (ETS). Chronic facial blushing is the cause of my social phobia. Although my psychologist tells me it's not the blushing that's the problem, it's my perception that other's will think less of me for blushing!
There's a great website that will answer most of your questions about the ETS procedure. It's an AUSTRALIAN site (where I'm from), www.easternsurgical.com.au.
Let me know what you think and decide.

Jess333 · Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2004 5:42 am Post subject:

I am an EASY blusher. I used to blush all the time, but since I've been improving my self-esteem and learning to think more positively, i'm overcoming SA/SP" and the blushing has gone down immensely.

Guest · Posted: Wed Apr 07, 2004 3:14 am Post subject:

Hi Tommy, please, please research this thouroughly before you make a decision. I had ETS 5 yrs ago in Australia and now have severe side effects much worse than my original condition that I have to cope with on a daily basis! Oh how I wish that I had the internet back then so that I could have looked into it rather than taking the surgeons word! If you do a search for ETS on google you will find losts of info good and bad about it. If you want my 2cents worth, I wouldn't suggest anyone do it!

Take care

Guest · Posted: Wed Jul 07, 2004 8:07 am Post subject: ETS operation

Hi there....I am 27 female,live in Sydney and considering the ets op for myself. I am a severe blusher and am thinking about getting T2 clamped...not cut incase I want it reversed.To the guest who wrote that their symptoms are worse now after the operation could you pls tell us what it is like now for you?Thanks

hihsuk · Guest

There are 2 purposes to this message.

The first is to let you know that the Radisson Group of dissatisfied British/Irish sympathectomy patients is meeting in London, w1 on saturday 4th September

The second is a general warning to not allow surgeons to destroy you with ETS, which is falsely touted as a cure for sweating, blushing, social phobia etc etc etc

http://www.noetsuk.com

thankyou

p.s. for the aussies, easternsurgical now have a website which says an awful lot more about the problems than it used to(I think you need to download an acrobat file off the website), this is very typical of the ETS specialists. The principal reason for this is an aussie lass who has forced their hand, and belive me, the stuff they talk about on the website is just a fraction of the truth. If like me you grew up with the type of family doctor who was a pillar of the community, then you may need a little convincing that there are bad giys out there. ETS is not the way to find out.