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

Friday, January 18, 2008

Predicting CS?

The mechanism of the so-called Compensatory Sweating is still unclear, and there are no ways to predict who will bit hit harder.
Some surgeons tell their patients that it happens mostly to men, who are overweight and had a heavy sweating prior to surgery.
This has never been proven, and my experience with people who underwent the surgery and have the debilitating CS does not indicate any group that would be more likely to be affected.
Also: these statistics are unreliable. There has been no independent study the examine the severity or extent of the CS. Many questions are not asked, so that they will not tarnish the results. These statistics are collected and questions formulated by the surgeons who offer the surgery. It would be reasonable to assume that they will look for a confirmation of the effectiveness of the operation....otherwise they would not do the surgery....