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, July 24, 2009

Abolition of sympathetic skin responses following endoscopic thoracic sympathectomy

The recording of sympathetic skin responses (SSRs) is a simple, electrophysiological method to assess sympathetic nerve function. Within the last 10 years, SSRs have mainly been applied to delineate peripheral and central nervous system diseases, although the sympathetic nature of these responses was not fully documented, e.g., by a study of sympathectomy. We therefore recorded SSRs before and after 30 cases of endoscopic thoracic sympathectomy. The main indication was palmar hyperhidrosis, in which we found two types of SSR abnormalities. Most patients exhibited normal SSR waveforms but with increased amplitudes. The other patients exhibited abnormal SSRs which did not occur as single responses but as several consecutive waves.

Muscle & Nerve

Volume 19 Issue 5, Pages 581 - 586

Published Online: 7 Dec 1998