Comparison of Effectiveness and Associated Complications Between Conventional Subdermal Excision and Hydrosurgery (Versajet TM ) for Osmidrosis.

BACKGROUND: Recent studies have shown hydrosurgery (Versajet TM II) is a simple and effective tool with reduced complications in surgical treatment of osmidrosis. Since then, hydrosurgery has been widely used for osmidrosis. However, we have experienced that some complications often occur in patients treated with hydrosurgery.

OBJECTIVE: We hypothesized that using a hydrosurgery could lead to excessive resection of the tightly attached apocrine glands and thus more complications. We aimed at evaluating the effectiveness and associated complications of the hydrosurgery method for osmidrosis were compared with those of conventional methods with two parallel incisions.

METHODS & MATERIALS: We retrospectively analyzed 31 and 16 patients who underwent conventional and hydrosurgery methods, respectively, for osmidrosis from 2010 to 2020. Two parallel long incisions were identical in both groups. Early complications (hematoma, seroma, wound dehiscence, skin necrosis, revision, scar contracture), late complications (scar, pigmentation, comedones/milia, and sebaceous cysts), and effectiveness (subjective satisfaction, malodor elimination, reduced hair growth, and sweating elimination) were evaluated.

RESULTS: Skin necrosis was significantly more frequent in the hydrosurgery group than in the conventional group (p = 0.036). No other significant differences were found between the two groups in terms of other complications and effectiveness. As a result of comparing effectiveness, subjective satisfaction (p = 0.306), malodor elimination (p = 1.000), reduced hair growth (p=1.000), and sweating elimination (p = 0.742) did not show any significant difference between the two groups.

CONCLUSION: Osmidrosis treatment with the use of VERSAJET™ Hydrosurgery System yielded similar and satisfactory results as the conventional subdermal excision method. The incidence of skin necrosis was higher in the hydrosurgery group than in the conventional group with two parallel incisions.

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