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

Saturday, January 31, 2009

The Neuroendocrine-immune Network

Work from Livnat's laboratory, utilizing the the experimental approach following chemical sympathectomy, has documented extensive functional alterations in immune responses following denervation. In several strains of mice, sympathectomy diminished primary antibody responses by as much as 80% and 97% in spleens and lymph nodes, respectively and suppressed the secondary antibody response as well. T-cell mediated responses, such as delayed hypersensitivity to epicutaneous immunization and cytotoxic T-lymphocyte responses to alloantigens, were reduced by 50% or more in denervated mice. In contrast, proliferation, and possibly differentiation of lymphocytes (mainly B cells) in lymph nodes in the absence of immunization was markedly stimulated by sympathectomy. Furthermore natural killer cell (NK) activity in the spleen and lungs was augmented following denervation.

The Neuroendocrine-immune Network

By S. Freier
Published by CRC Press, 1990
ISBN 0849346258, 9780849346255