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

Monday, April 21, 2008

Norepinephrine depletion commonly is the desired effect, other neurotransmitters (eg ATP, NPY and enkephalins) are depleted by sympathectomy

The term Sympathectomy used in this discussion refers mainly to the lesioning of postganglionic noradrenergic (NA) neurons and fibers except where noted. Although norepinephrine depletion commonly is the desired effect, other costored neurotransmitters (eg ATP, NPY and enkephalins) are depleted by sympathetic denervation. The multitude of research studying the effects of sympathetic loss is made possible by the morphologically defined anatomy of the postganglionic sympathetic chains, the sensitivity of postganglionic NA neurons to nerve growth factor (NGF) deprivation, and the phenotypic specialty of these neurons that allows for the selective uptake of neurotoxins.

Primer on the Autonomic Nervous System

By David Robertson
Published 2004