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

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Heat loss due to sympathectomy-induced vasodilation

Hypothermia (a decrease in core temperature) is common in patients undergoing surgery with epidural anesthesia an is thought to result from heat loss to the cold environment due to sympathectomy-induced vasodilation.
Sympathectomy-induced vasodilation produced central hypothermia via net convection of the heat from the warmer central to cooler peripheral tissues. The net effect is an increase in peripheral tissue temperature at the expense of decreased central temperature.

Neural Blockade in Clinical Anesthesia and Management of Pain
By Michael J. Cousins, Phillip O. Bridenbaugh
Contributor Michael J. Cousins
Published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 1997
p. 277