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

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Dopamine-beta-Hydroxylase: Decrease after Chemical Sympathectomy

Serum Dopamine-beta-Hydroxylase: Decrease after Chemical Sympathectomy
Richard Weinshilboum 1 and Julius Axelrod 2

1 Pharmacology-Toxicology Program, National Institute of General Medical Sciences, Bethesda, Maryland 20014
2 Laboratory of Clinical Science, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20014

Dopamine-beta- hydroxylase is an enzyme that is localized to catecholamine-containing vesicles in sympathetic nerves and the adrenal medulla, and is also found in the serum. Treatment of rats with 6-hydroxydopamine, a drug which destroys sympathetic nerve terminals, leads to a decrease in serum dopamine-beta-hydroxylase activity. The decrease is not due to an effect on the adrenal medulla or to an increase in circulating inhibitor or inhibitors of enzyme. These data represent evidence that at least a portion of the circulating dopamine-beta-hydroxylase activity arises from sympathetic nerve terminals.