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, April 17, 2008

Chemical sympathectomy disrupts the only known neural input to the pineal gland

  • The Pineal Gland: A Pacemaker within the Circadian System of the House Sparrow
  • Natille Headrick Zimmerman and Michael Menaker
  • Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Vol. 76, No. 2 (Feb., 1979), pp. 999-1003 (article consists of 5 pages)
Chemical sympathectomy disrupts the only known neural input to the pineal gland.