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, January 10, 2010

Cervical sympathectomy and cerebral microvascular and blood flow responses to hypocapnic hypoxia

The number of perfused arterioles and capillaries was significantly higher under hypoxic conditions than under normoxic conditions in sham and ganglionectomized animals. During hypoxia, the percent of arterioles per squared millimeter perfused increased to 63 +/- 5% in sham-lesioned rats and to a significantly greater extent, 80 +/- 6%, in ganglionectomized rats. The percentage of capillaries per squared millimeter perfused changed similarly. The peripheral sympathetic nervous system appeared to play an important role in the control of cerebral microvascular response to hypoxia.
Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol 256: H460-H467, 1989;

http://ajpheart.physiology.org/cgi/content/abstract/256/2/H460