facial blushing known as hyperhidrosis

Facial blushing also known as social phobia or erythrophobia is another manifestation of hypersympathetic activity. Facial blushing is sometimes mistaken as rosacea. For more information on rosacea click here. It was found that patients who suffer from palmar hyperhidrosis (hand sweating) as well as facial blushing will benefit from sympathectomy. Then the scope of sympathectomy was increased to include patients who suffer only from facial blushing. Facial blushing usually appears late in life teenage years and up and is manifested with bursts of facial redness which are social triggered. Patients can feel warm feeling in their facial area but the halmark of their complaint is that their face is changing into a red color. Those afflicted with that can have social and functional impact on their lives. Over the last several years sympathectomy as a surgical cure for facial blushing lost it's significant role as a treatment due to lower success rate and the fact that patients are sometimes left with various side effects that are less desirable than the facial blushing itself. Accumulating information and evidence over the last few years has shown that a high number of patients who were treated surgically for facial blushing and or facial hyperhidrosis did develop more side effects than those who were treated for palmar hyperhidrosis as a presenting problem. Dr. Reisfeld has written extensively about this on his website covering facial blushing.

Treatement can be done with medications such as betta blockers, tranqulizing medications, and as the last resort sympathectomy.

To see descriptions of various treatments click here.

A useful link for people who suffer from facial blushing is the Red Mask Foundation. To visit the site. Click here to view the site.