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

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg. 2009 Mar;137(3):664-9. Epub 2008 Sep 24.Click here to read Links

Effects of endoscopic thoracic sympathectomy for primary hyperhidrosis on cardiac autonomic nervous activity.

Service of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Hospital de Santa Maria, Lisbon, Portugal. costacruzjorge@gmail.com

We found statistically significant differences (P < .05) in both time and frequency domains. Parameters that evaluate global cardiac autonomic activity (total power, SD of normal R-R intervals, SD of average normal R-R intervals) and vagal activity (rhythm corresponding to percentage of normal R-R intervals with cycle greater than 50 ms relative to previous interval, square root of mean squared differences of successive normal R-R intervals, high-frequency power, high-frequency power in normalized units) were statistically significantly increased after sympathectomy. Low-frequency power in normalized units, reflecting sympathetic activity, was statistically significantly decreased after sympathectomy. Low-/high-frequency power ratio also showed a significant decrease, indicating relative decrease in sympathetic activity and increase in vagal activity.

These results provide, for the first time to our knowledge, clear evidence of increased vagal and global cardiac autonomic activity and decreased sympathetic activity after endoscopic thoracic sympathectomy.

PMID: 19258086 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]