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

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Evaluation of long-term chemical sympathectomy

AJP - Heart and Circulatory Physiology, Vol 238, Issue 4 527-H532, Copyright © 1980 by American Physiological Society

K. Fronek

Administration of 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) will produce long-term sympathectomy in newborn animals. This investigation was designed to determine whether or not a long-term sympathectomy can be achieved by repeated administration of 6-OHDA in adult rabbits. Chronic treatment with 6-OHDA lowered blood pressure on average of 9 mmHg; the carotid sinus reflex was depressed, in contrast to the pressure response to intravenously administered epinephrine, which was doubled. In a constant-flow hindlimb preparation, the response to norepinephrine (NE) in 6-OHDA-treated rats was 50% larger and lasted 3 times longer. NE uptake in vitro, which is proportional to the number of adrenergic nerve endings, was found to be diminished by 80-85% in aortas from 6-OHDA-treated animals, and the dose-response curve for NE was slightly shifted to the left. The number of ganglionic cells in the superior cervical ganglia in treated animals was decreased by 80%. In conclusion, results from 6-OHDA-treated adult animals were entirely consistent with the effects of long-term sympathectomy.