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

Sunday, June 22, 2008

sympathectomy also can interfere with peripheral perfusion

Complications in Anesthesiology
Emilio B Lobato, Nikolaus Gravenstein, Robert R Kirby
Wolters Kluwer/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
page 131:
Hypoperfusion
Peripheral hypoperfusion is often caused by low cardiac output secondary to hypovolemia, cardiac failure, myocardial ischemia or dysrythmia. Decreased systemic vascular resistance related to sepsis, catecholamine depletion or sympathectomy also can interfere with peripheral perfusion, either because of low perfusion pressure or due to poor distribution of systemic blood flow.