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, October 18, 2009

How Sympathectomy is described by the surgeons who offer the procedure: (Is this what Sympathectomy does - only?)

"With the nerve stimulation data, Dr. McCormack then cuts only those nerves that innervate sweat glands in the areas affected with hyperhydrosis. For example, a patient with palmar hyperhydrosis, T2 and T3 ganglion may individually, or both be involved. The intraoperative nerve testing precisely defines which ganglion has to be cut and avoids injury to the ganglion not involved. This is important because post-operative compensatory sweating problems increase with the number of ganglion cut."
http://www.nosweatsurgery.com/hyperhyd.htm