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, June 21, 2008

sympathectomy results in partial hyperthermia, with compensatory contralateral extremity hypothermia

sympathectomy results in partial hyperthermia, with compensatory contralateral extremity hypothermia, this result in the spread of pain in the contralateral extremity. Out of desperation, sympathectomy has been applied for treatment of causalgia since 1916 (7). The literature review of sympathectomy literature for treatment of CRPS shows high rates of failure. Welch et al (8) showed 13% successful results of sympathectomy in 8.4 years of long term follow-up.

Hooshang Hooshmand, Masood Hashmi, Eric M. Phillips

Neurological Associates Pain Management Center, Vero Beach, Florida, USA http://www.rsdinfo.com/thermography_part-_ii.htm