The amount of compensatory sweating depends on the patient, the damage that the white rami communicans incurs, and the amount of cell body reorganization in the spinal cord after surgery.
Other potential complications include inadequate resection of the ganglia, gustatory sweating, pneumothorax, cardiac dysfunction, post-operative pain, and finally Horner’s syndrome secondary to resection of the stellate ganglion.
www.ubcmj.com/pdf/ubcmj_2_1_2010_24-29.pdf

After severing the cervical sympathetic trunk, the cells of the cervical sympathetic ganglion undergo transneuronic degeneration
After severing the sympathetic trunk, the cells of its origin undergo complete disintegration within a year.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1439-0442.1967.tb00255.x/abstract

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

ARE WE PAYING A HIGH PRICE FOR SYMPATHECTOMY? 2

Nevertheless, immediate (perioperative and postoperative) complications (primarily for the open but also
the endoscopic approach) include: fever, hematoma, transient Horner’s syndrome, bleeding, pneumotho-
rax, infection, wound pain, lymphatic leak, chylothorax, arterial injury, brachial plexus injury, etc.17. Late
complications include: permanent Horner’s syndrome, neuralgic pains, unsightly wound appearance, com-
pensatory hyperhidrosis, gustatory sweating and phantom sweating, and in the case of bilateral lumbar
sympathectomy erectile dysfunction in the male and lack of clitoral tumescence in the female18.
I S I S
SCIENTIFIC NEWSLETTER
Volume 4 Number 2
Summer Issue 2001