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

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

A reduction in heat tolerance after Sympathectomy

Role of splanchnic and lumbar sympathetic nerves in physiologic responses to fever and hypoxia in dogs

W. G. Kubicek 1, W. F. Geber 1, J. W. Geiger 1, and E. A. Johnson 1
Am J Physiol 196: 685-690, 1959;
The most important function of the splanchnic and lumbar sympathetic nerves was apparently the control of the circulatory system and secondly the partial regulation of blood glucose probably through liberation of epinephrine from the adrenal medulla. A reduction in heat tolerance of the animals was observed after sympathectomy.