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

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Sympathetic nervous system control of anti-influenza CD8+ T cell responses

Adoptive transfer experiments indicate that enhanced CD8+ responses do not result from permanent alterations in CD8+ T cell function in sympathectomized mice. Rather, additional findings suggest that the sympathetic nervous system tempers the capacity of antigen-presenting cells to activate naïve CD8+ T cells. We also show that antiviral CD8+ T cell responses are enhanced by administration of a β2 (but not β1 or α) adrenergic antagonist. These findings demonstrate a critical role for the sympathetic nervous system in limiting CD8+ T cell responses and indicate that CD8+ T cell responses may be altered in patients using β-blockers, one of the most widely prescribed classes of drugs.
PNAS March 31, 2009 vol. 106 no. 13