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 28, 2008

Joint inflammation is reduced by dorsal rhizotomy and not by sympathectomy or spinal cord transection

Ann Rheum Dis. 1994 May; 53(5): 309–314.
PMCID: PMC1005329
Joint inflammation is reduced by dorsal rhizotomy and not by sympathectomy or spinal cord transection.
K A Sluka, N B Lawand, and K N Westlund
Marine Biomedical Institute, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston 77555-0843
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1005329