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

no one has examined the effects of sympathectomy, adrenergic blockade, or adrenal demedulation

Thus, until proven otherwise, we suggest that many, if not all, of the anti-inflammatory effects associated with efferent vagal stimulation are due to the concurrent activation of the adrenal medulla and the sympathetic nervous system. It is surprising that no one has examined the effects of sympathectomy, adrenergic blockade, or adrenal demedulation on the inhibition of TNF-� and inflammation produced by efferent vagal stimulation.

PubMed articles by:
Autonomic Innervation and Regulation of the Immune System
(1987-2007)
Dwight M. Nance and Virginia M. Sanders
Brain Behav Immun. 2007 August; 21(6): 736–745.


Madden KS, Felten SY, Felten DL, Sundaresan PR, Livnat S.
Sympathetic neural modulation of the immune system. I.
Depression of T cell immunity in vivo and in vitro following chemical sympathectomy. Brain Behav.Immun.
1989;3:72–89. [PubMed]