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, November 30, 2009

collateral effects of thoracic sympathectomy not disclosed to patients


Several reports also demonstrate significantly lower heart rate increases during exercise in subjects who have undergone bilateral ISS [9–12] compared to pre-surgical levels. In spite of this high occurrence, recent reviews on the usual collateral effects of thoracic sympathectomy still do not include these possible cardiac consequences [6].

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on the effect of unilateral and bilateral ISS on heart rate response to exercise in the same patients. A significant decrease in the heart rate to workload relationship during exercise is constantly observed a few weeks after surgery, but does not seem to exclusively result from right-sided surgery as previously suggested.
Patients are generally aware of severe but infrequent complications. They should also be informed of the relative exercise bradycardia resulting from this kind of surgery.
Eur J Cardiothorac Surg 2001;20:1095-1100