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, July 21, 2008

sympathectomy for palmar hyperhidrosis: effects on pulmonary function

In order to investigate the effect of sympathectomy, pulmonary function was compared before and four weeks after operation in 20 patients. Forced vital capacity (FVC) (-2.3%), forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1) (-6.1%), and FEV1/FVC (-4.6%) were all slightly but significantly decreased four weeks after thoracoscopic sympathectomy. Also the instantaneous forced expiratory flow at 75%, 50% and 25% of the FVC (Vmax 25, Vmax 50, Vmax75) in flow-volume curves were decreased (-1.6%, 8.4%, and -20% respectively). Therefore, thoracoscopic sympathectomy minimises pulmonary restrictive effects but allows subclinical small airway obstructive effects to become more evident.

TSENG Ming-Yuan (1) ; TSENG Jen-Ho (1) ;
(1) Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Surgery, Medical School and Hospital, National Taiwan University, 7 Chung-Shan South Road, Taipei, TAIWAN, PROVINCE DE CHINE
Journal of clinical neuroscience ISSN 0967-5868
2001, vol. 8, no6, pp. 539-541 (29 ref.)