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

Monday, February 18, 2008

Changes in Blood Flow following Sympathectomy

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EFFECT OF SYMPATHECTOMY ON BLOOD FLOW IN THE HUMAN LIMB
Stein et al. Am J Physiol.1948; 152: 499-504

Blood diverted from muscle to skin after sympathectomy

However, the clinical results of both surgical and neurolityc sympathectomy are uncertain. Indeed these procedures lead to a redistribution of the blood flow in the lower limbs from the muscle to the skin, with a concomitant fall of the regional resistance, mainly in undamaged vessels. The blood flow will be diverted into this part of the vascular tree, so that a
"stealing" of the blood flow may occur.
Vito A. Peduto, Giancarlo Boero, Antonio Marchi, Riccardo Tani
Bilateral extensive skin necrosis of the lower limbs following prolonged epidural blockade


Anaesthesia 1976; 31: 1068-75.

Medical Errors Action Group in Australia

Australia has the highest rate of medical error in the world according to the World Health Organisation's 2002 Report released late last year .

16% of our hospitalised patients will suffer a significant adverse event which is totally unrelated to their original medical condition . This translates as 1 patient in 6 , which is four times the reported occurrence of medical error incidents in the United States , and a full 6% higher than Britain's 10% error rate .

18 , 000 Australian patients die each year as a direct result of avoidable injuries and complications inflicted from withn our health system environments .

Another 50 , 000 Australian patients per year are left with permanent disabilities , and hundreds of thousands more are avoidably injured to some greater or lesser degree .

80 , 000 Australian patients per year are hospitalised due to medication errors , syphoning a massive $350m from the Federal Health Budget annually .

And these figures do not take into account the recognised errors which take place in other clinical outpatient settings such as GP surgeries , radiology suites , and other outpatient clinics where the error rate has been found to be at 23% in one Sydney study .

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