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

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Sympathectomy, whether chemical or surgical, leads to diarrhea

The sympathetic nervous system in the intestinal mucosa releases
norepinephrine (an a2 antagonist) and so inhibits electrolyte secretion and stimulates absorption. Sympathectomy, whether chemical or surgical, leads to diarrhea, at least transiently. Chronic diabetics with autonomic neuropathy sometimes develop persistent diarrhea that is associated with degeneration of adrenergic nerve fibers to the gut. Somatostatin and endogenous enkephalins are also antisecretory.
http://www.gastroresource.com/GITextbook/en/chapter7/7-5-pr.htm