Etiology and management of axillary bromidrosis: a brief review

Axillary bromidrosis is a distressing condition that poses significant social embarrassment in almost all the countries over the world. However, its definite etiology has not been generalized yet. There have been a lot of treatments for bromidrosis, which can be roughly divided into two types: conservative management and radical surgical therapy. In order to summarize the possible causes of axillary bromidrosis, a brief review of the literatures regarding bromidrosis was performed.

An English literature search from 1975 to June 2007 was completed with references to treatments for bromidrosis. A total of 29 papers about the treatment were selected to review. After a close reading, all the extracted information was imported into Microsoft Excel.

Many therapies were carried out to treat bromidrosis, including nonoperative and operative ones. Almost all the authors thought that the nonoperative management, such as topical antiperspirants, systemic agents, and iontophoresis, did not have a permanent effect. Most surgeons (90%) chose surgical methods to remove axillary sweat glands for bromidrosis and 90.69% of the axillae had good results.

Axillary sweat glands may play the most important role in the etiology of bromidrosis. In addition, axillary microorganism, hormone, and inherent also contribute to bromidrosis.