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, January 5, 2009

Baroreflex Control of Heart Rate during Cardiac Sympathectomy

The results suggest that cardiac sympathectomy induced by epidural anesthesia can suppress partially baroreceptor function by interrupting sympathetic efferent fibers innervating the heart during high levels of epidural anesthesia, but that lumbar sympathectomy during epidural anesthesia is unlikely to affect baroreceptor activity.
Anesth Analg 1983; 62:815-820
http://www.anesthesia-analgesia.org/cgi/content/abstract/62/9/815