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 9, 2008

Sympathectomy-induced increases in calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP)-, substance P- and vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP)-levels

The neuropeptide contents of rat salivary glands were increased four weeks after sympathetic postganglionic denervation (but not after preganglionic denervation): calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) by 400 and 65% in the parotid and submandibular glands, respectively; substance P by 30% in the submandibular gland; and vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) by 30% in the parotid gland. The sensory neurotoxin capsaicin prevented the expected increases of CGRP and substance P in the submandibular glands and of VIP in the parotid glands. The CGRP-increase in the parotid gland was, however, only reduced (by 65%). Parasympathetic otic ganglionectomy reduced the peptide levels in the parotid glands (CGRP – 50%, VIP – 98% and substance P – 99%). From these residual levels, CGRP increased almost 8-fold and substance P 3-fold in response to the sympathetic denervation, while VIP was unaffected. In the parasympathetically denervated glands, the capsaicin-sensitive contribution to the CGRP-response to sympathetic denervation was roughly estimated to be more than 25% but less than 40%, while the corresponding contribution to the substance P-response was roughly estimated to be more than 6% but less than 58%. Most likely not only CGRP/substance P-containing sensory C-fibres (submandibular and parotid glands) but also parasympathetic VIP-containing secretomotor and vasomotor fibres (parotid glands) contributed to the capsaicin-sensitive response to sympathetic denervation.
J. Ekströma R. Ekman
2005