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

sympathectomy on dopamine, noradrenaline and adrenaline content in some peripheral tissues

Dopamine, noradrenaline (NA) and adrenaline (Ad) depletion by 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) and pargyline plus 6-OHDA was investigated in the cat left ventricle, mesenteric and renal arteries, renal cortex, renal medulla and adrenal medulla. Catecholamine concentrations in plasma were also analyzed in these two experimental conditions. 6-OHDA alone or in combination with pargyline induced parallel decreases of NA and dopamine contents in the left ventricle. In the main trunk and proximal branches of the mesenteric artery and renal artery 6-OHDA selectively reduced NA without a parallel decrease in dopamine content. Previous treatment with pargyline abolished this selectivity. In the kidney of control animals, dopamine content was greater than could be attributed to its presence only in noradrenergic neurones. In the renal cortex 6-OHDA reduced significantly dopamine and NA contents, and in the renal medulla only NA levels were decreased by this drug. Pargyline plus 6-OHDA did not deplete the NA content either in the renal cortex or in the renal medulla, and only reduced significantly the dopamine content in the renal cortex. NA concentrations in plasma were increased by pargyline plus 6-OHDA whilst Ad remained unaffected. In the adrenal medulla only NA content was reduced either by 6-OHDA or pargyline plus 6-OHDA.
Br J Pharmacol. 1985 October; 86(2): 351–356.
M. M. Caramona and P. Soares-da-Silva