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 with 6-hydroxy-dopamine reproduces many of the ocular phenomena of surgical sympathectomy

Anterior Segment Chemical Sympathectomy by 6-Hydroxy-Dopamine

I. Effect on Intraocular Pressure and Facility of Outflow

MONTE G. HOLLAND 1 and JAMES L. MINIS III 1

1 Department of Ophthalmology, Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans, La.

Histofluorometric techniques have confirmed that topical ocular application of 6-hydroxydopamine, a norepinephrine congener, causes a selective and reversible destruction of sympathetic nerve terminals in the anterior segment. An investigation of the effects of "chemical sympathectomy" on the pupil, intraocular pressure, and facility of outflow showed: the pupil underwent a sequence of changes characteristic of surgical sympathetic denervation, but with a different time course; the intraocular pressure .was significantly lowered, transiently in rabbits and of longer duration in monkeys; the facility of outflow was transiently increased in monkeys and probably in rabbits; the episcleral venous pressure was unchanged in both species. It was concluded that the lowered intraocular pressure and lowered outflow pressure were the result of a reduction of aqueous inflow. There was no unequivocal experimental demonstration of supersensitization to topical norepinephrine or isoproterenol following chemical sympathetic denervation; however, the experiments were not conclusive on this important point. It was concluded that chemical sympathectomy with 6-hydroxy-dopamine reproduces many of the ocular phenomena of surgical sympathectomy. 6-Hydroxy-dopamine is a useful drug for experimental ophthalmology, and may be useful clinically.

(Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science. 1971;10:120-143.)
© 1971 by The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, Inc.