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, July 13, 2008

Does bilateral thoracic sympathectomy predispose to reflex bronchospasm following tracheal intubation?

Patients with essential hyperhidrosis have sympathetic overactivity, associated with compensatory high parasympathetic tone. Sympathectomy results in a decrease of plasma norepinephrine,3 and parasympathetic predominance4 which may increase airway resistance.5 Intraoperative bronchospasm is usually cholinergically-mediated. Thus, patients with essential hyperhidrosis who have undergone bilateral thoracic sympathectomy, may be more liable to develop reflex bronchospasm under light levels of anesthesia.
Ahed Zeidan, MD*, Nazih Nahle, MD* and Anis Baraka, MD FRCA{dagger}
Canadian Journal of Anesthesia 52:997-998 (2005)
© Canadian Anesthesiologists' Society, 2005