An epidemiological study of hyperhidrosis

BACKGROUND Hyperhidrosis affects approximately 3% of the population. The nature of those patients presenting for treatment has not been well studied, however. OBJECTIVE The objective was to perform a descriptive, multicenter study of patterns of patients referred for treatment of focal hyperhidrosis. METHODS AND MATERIALS A convenience sampling of consecutive patients referred for consideration of BTX-A therapy was surveyed. RESULTS A total of 508 patient records (266 patients from Canada; 242 from the United States) were reviewed; 62.8% of those patients were female. The most common presentation was axillary hyperhidrosis in 73.0% of patients. Most of the patients were moderately to severely affected by their hyperhidrosis, with Hyperhidrosis Disease Severity Scale scores of 3 or 4. There were trends found of facial and scalp hyperhidrosis affecting more men than women and being triggered by food much more frequently than in other sites of hyperhidrosis. CONCLUSION This study has demonstrated novel findings, especially in the differing presentations of hyperhidrosis between men and women.