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, June 23, 2008

for the treatment of anxiety

page 165:
Psychosurgery
Case series have been reported of patients with severe treatment resistant social anxiety disorder undergoing surgical procedures including capsulotomy and endoscopic thoracic sympathectomy. Given the limited evidence for the effectiveness of these interventions in conjunction with the significant associated surgical risk, we cannot recommend such procedures, though they would understandlable warrant consideration by those patients who are especially disabled by the disorder and who have not responded to either psychotheraphy or pharmacotherapy.

Principles of Psychopharmacology for Mental Health Professionals (Paperback)

by Jeffrey E. Kelsey (Author), Charles B. Nemeroff (Author), D. Jeffrey Newpor (Author)
Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2006