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

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Autonomic paresthesia

Lair L, Gibbons C, Freeman R.

Autonomic and Peripheral Nerve Laboratory, Dept. of Neurology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, 1 Deaconess Road, Boston, MA 02215, USA.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the biology of phantom sweating, a novel autonomic neuropathy symptom, based on a description of a patient with a small fiber and autonomic neuropathy. METHODS: Clinical and laboratory assessments. RESULTS: Evidence of a generalized small fiber and autonomic neuropathy. INTERPRETATION: Phantom sweating occurs frequently after sympathectomy but has not been reported previously in patients with a somatosensory or autonomic neuropathy. We suggest that this symptom is an autonomic paresthesia.

Clinical Autonomic Research

Volume 18, Number 6 / December, 2008