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

Sympathectomy may result in profound hypotension

Regional anesthetic techniques such as
spinal or epidural anesthesia, though efficacious in
providing surgical anesthesia and sensory deafferenta-
tion, are often avoided because they produce bilateral
sympathectomy. This may result in profound hypoten-
sion that can be difficult to treat in HOCM patients.
Paravertebral somatic nerve blocks for breast
surgery in a patient with hypertrophic obstructive
cardiomyopathy

Chester C. Buckenmaier III MD, Susan M. Steele MD, Karen C. Nielsen MD, Stephen M. Klein MD
CAN J ANESTH 2002 / 49: 6 / pp 571–574