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, February 6, 2009

Cerebral artery mass reduced by sympathetic denervation

Bevan RD, Tsuru H, Bevan JA.

Weights of matching right and left middle or posterior cerebral arteries and their main branches from the same animal were compared 8-10 weeks after unilateral denervation by superior cervical ganglionectomy. When compared in pairs, the denervated arterial systems weighed significantly less (mean 85%) than their innervated counterparts. This suggests that the sympathetic innervation exerts a trophic influence on extracerebral arteries.

PMID: 6362090 [PubMed - indexed for Medline
Stroke. 1983 May-Jun;14(3):393-6.