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

Sympathectomy induces novel purinergic sensitivity

Twenty eight percent of the spontaneously active afferent fibres from sciatic nerves in the sympathectomyzed rats responded to ATP, either with an increase or with a decrease in spontaneous firing. However, none of the fibres from the sciatic nerves in the intact rats was activated by ATP.


Sympathectomy induces novel purinergic sensitivity in A afferents from sciatic nerve.
It is thought that this novel purinergic sensitivity may contribute to neuropathic paraesthesia and pain.
CHEN YONG, ZHANG YI-HONG, BIE BI-HUA, ZHAO ZHI-QI
Shanghai Institute of Physiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Acta Pharmacol Sin, 2000 Nov; 21 (11):1002-1004