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, May 6, 2008

Cerebral blood flow is no longer constant after sympathectomy

Cerebral blood flow remains relatively constant and is in-
dependent of modest fluctuations in arterial pressure,
presumably because of its capacity for autoregulation.22-23
After cervical sympathectomy, however, one group reported
that cerebral blood flow rate is no longer constant but varies
with arterial pressure.

The demonstration that non-uniform changes in blood flow
between cortical lobes and between hemispheres could be in-
duced by ischemia26 and neurogenic stimulation26 probably
implicates neurogenic factors. There is some evidence for
heterogeneity of the function of the sympathetic neurons
originating from the superior cervical ganglion.



Adrenergic lnnervation of Large Cerebral Blood
Vessels of the Rabbit Studied by Fluorescence Microscopy
Absence of Features That Might Contribute to Non-Uniform Change
in Cerebral Blood Flow
RALPH E. PURDY, PH.D.,* AND JOHN A. BEVAN, M.D.

STROKE VOL 8, No 1, JANUARY-FEBRUARY 1977