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, October 5, 2008

41% of the patients claim quality of life decreased

41% of the participants claimed that their quality of life decreased moderately or severely as a result of CS. Only (sic!) 19.6% would not have undergone the operation in retrospect; there was a significant interesting difference regarding this issue between adults (31.4%) and children (8.8%). The extent of the CS did not change with time in 70% of the patients. It exacerbated in 10% and it diminished in 20%, usually within the first 2 postoperative years. CONCLUSIONS: Thoracoscopic sympathectomy relieves hyperhidrosis in most cases. Patients prefer relief from palmar hyperhidrosis even at the cost of a high rate of CS.
J Pediatr Surg. 2007 Jul;42(7):1238-42.Click here to read
Steiner Z, Kleiner O, Hershkovitz Y, Mogilner J, Cohen Z.

Department of Pediatric Surgery, Hillel Yaffe Medical Center, Hadera 38100, Israel.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17618887?ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVAbstractPlus