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

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Effect of Sympathectomy on Blood Flow

These experimental hemodynamic considerations, in general, explain the occasional untoward effects of sympathectomy, and provide support for some of the empirically derived indications and contra-in- dications for sympathectomy.
Sympathectomy should be tailored to denervate only the ischemic area, if this is possible. Sympathectomy should not be performed where collateral channels do not exist, because of the danger of flow shifts. Sympathectomy probably should not be employed for relief of intermittent claudication.
Annals of Surgery August 1963