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, May 5, 2008

Follow-up surgery after ETS to reduce axillary HH

Many of the patients attend after thorascopic sympathectomy which resolved their palmar, but not axillary, hyperhidrosis. Surgical excision of axillary tissue remains an important treatment modality for a large proportion of hyperhidrotic patients. It has the ability to provide a permanent and satisfactory solution to a frustrating problem. It is not as yet a redundant method of treatment.

J L Atkins, senior house officer, plastic surgery.
P E M Butler, consultant plastic surgeon.
Royal Free Hospital, London NW3 2QG
BMJ 2000;321:702 ( 16 September )
Letters
Treating hyperhidrosis
Excision of axillary tissue may be more effective