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, August 3, 2009

Nerve 'injury' and consequences well observed in animals

Ligation injury of the L5/L6 nerve roots in rats produces behavioral signs representative of clinical conditions of neuropathic pain, including tactile allodynia and thermal and mechanical hyperalgesia.

Anesthesiology:
January 1997 - Volume 86 - Issue 1 - pp 196-204
Laboratory Investigation