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, February 9, 2009

Informed consent in Australia

Recent decisions in Australian courts affirm three important principles relating to consent to therapy. First, patients must be appropriately and adequately informed. Second, the scope and detail of the information supplied should be based on the reasonable patient's need to know rather than on the actions of the reasonable doctor. Third, the doctor must take care to ensure that the information imparted is understood by the patient. This publication reviews the basis of informed consent and traditional beneficent-style consent. The occasions when beneficence is more appropriate are outlined.

Reginald S. A. Lord 1 , 2
1 Department of Surgery, St Vincent's Hospital, University of New South Wales. Sydney. Australila
Correspondence to 2 Professor R. S. A. Lord, Level 17, St Vincent's Hospital. Victoria Street. Darlinghurst. NSW 2010. Australia.
*Presented at the 1st John Plunkett Seminar on Medical Ethics, Sydney. June 1994.