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

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Last resort surgery? What does that mean??

"Dr. Goodman: Mainly dermatologists and cosmetic physicians provide treatments for excessive sweating here. Treatments available include heavy-duty antiperspirants, botulinum toxin injections, and iontophoresis. We provide iontophoresis treatments here at the Skin and Cancer Foundation of Victoria and it's available at certain other hospital centers, but it's not available in private practice like it is in the United States, and usually the iontophoresis units being used have been built by hospitals' own engineering departments. Occasionally, though, the R.A. Fischer galvanic units may also be used. Endoscopic thoracic sympathectomy is still practiced here but its use is decreasing and it's really only advocated as the last resort for palmar [hand] hyperhidrosis or facial blushing, and it's only rarely used for axillary [underarm] hyperhidrosis. "

http://www.sweathelp.org/English/CMN_Article.asp?ArticleCode=64750038