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

Friday, January 2, 2009

cardiovascular adjustment to exercise and sympathectomy

Mean arterial pressure and total peripheral resistance were significantly reduced at rest and during steady state of exercise as compared to controls prior to sympathectomy identical vO2, whereas CO remained unchanged.
The significant fall in left circumflex coronary flow was proportional to the decline in external heart work due to sympathectomy both at rest and under exercise.

http://www.springerlink.com/content/k2n6j4555g16x773/