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

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Regeneration after cervicothoracic sympathectomy producing gustatory responses.

Angiology. 1966 Mar;17(3):143-7.Links
Regeneration after cervicothoracic sympathectomy producing gustatory responses.
Bloor K.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/5909808


Gustatory sweating demonstrated by infrared thermography]
[Article in German]

Plendl H, Paulus W, Witt TN.

Neurologische Klinik, Klinikum Grosshadern, Universität München.

The hypaesthesia improved, but the sympathetic nerve deficits remained. There were no other neurological signs. 9 months later, within one minute of eating a sour apple, the patient developed severe sweating over the left half of the face and the left chest. The reaction was confirmed by infra-red thermography which proved that the skin temperature in the sweating region had fallen to 3 degrees C. The likely cause of localized gustatory sweating is intra-operative damage of the stellate ganglion or its preganglionic nerve connections. Treatment is limited to avoidance of the precipitating gustatory stimulus.

Dtsch Med Wochenschr. 1992 Oct 9;117(41):1556-60.

Application of medical thermography to the diagnosis of Frey's syndrome.
Isogai N, Kamiishi H.

Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Kinki University Hospital, Osaka, Japan.

BACKGROUND: In Frey's syndrome, the secretory parasympathetic fibers of the parotid gland are thought to communicate with the sympathetic nerve fibers of sweat glands and blood vessels of the skin following parotidectomy. Miscommunication results in subjective gustatory sweating and facial flushing, which appear early with postoperative mastication. In this study, we compared the efficacy of medical thermography to the Minor's starch-iodine test to determine the presence of gustatory sweating in Frey's syndrome. METHODS: Patients were considered to have Frey's syndrome if signs of gustatory sweating and localized skin flushing of the parotid region were present. In four patients who had undergone unilateral parotidectomy, gustatory sweating and facial flushing were present after gustatory stimulation, and the presence of Frey's syndrome was confirmed with Minor's starch test in all patients. Infrared thermography was then performed, and the same area measured. The contralateral side served as an internal control for each patient. RESULTS: Before gustatory stimulation, the isothermal pattern of the diseased side and the nonoperative side was similar. Stress thermography using a sialogogue (lemon, 3 mL) showed a cold spot at the operative site in all four patients with Frey's syndrome. The contralateral nonoperative side showed normal skin temperature distribution in all patients. Minor's test was positive in all patients. CONCLUSIONS: Thermography is a noninvasive, facile test that provides a qualitative visual analysis of the cutaneous capillary response in Frey's syndrome following parotid surgery.