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

Thursday, September 4, 2008

The Unbalanced Autonomic Nervous System Causes the Symptoms of the Metabolic Syndrome

The metabolic syndrome consists of visceral obesity, hyperglycemia, hyperinsulinemia, dyslipidemia, and cardiovascular diseases. A common pathophysiological denominator underlying these epidemiological correlations has not been identified. However, the autonomic nervous system was shown to play a role in the metabolic syndrome. Recently, a prospective cohort study in 8,000 patients from 1987-1998 revealed a high relative risk to develop type 2 diabetes if autonomic dysfunction is present in healthy subjects independent from other risk factors, such as body weight.[42]

Diabetes. 2003;52(11):2652-2656. ©2003 American Diabetes Association, Inc.