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, December 7, 2008

Increased Lipid Deposits in the Iris following Sympathectomy

• Much interest has focused recently on the important role played by the smooth muscle
cell in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. This is because it is the smooth muscle cell of
the intimal and subintimal region which is involved early and to a marked degree by the
lipid deposits.

The eye provides a model system with three unique advantages: (1) the iris is rich in smooth
muscle cells which are well localized; (2) lipid deposits in the eye can be easily seen and their
progression can be followed visually; (3) certain experimental modifications can be readily
introduced into the model system during life. For example, the eye can be sympathetically
denervated. This deprives smooth muscle cells of the levator and iris dilator muscles of locally
released norepinephrine. It is increasingly recognized that norepinephrine exerts a regula-
tory effect on lipid metabolism.
1971;2;23-34 Stroke (Stroke is published by the American Heart Association)
ARMSTRONG JAMES AUSTIN, WILLIAM ROBERTS, HANS NEVILLE and DONALD