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

No increase in muscle blood flow following sympathectomy

Recent evidence suggests that this increase in total blood flow represents, in the main, arteriovenous shunting with little, if any, effect on the nutritive blood flow at the tissue level. Studies aimed at investigating the effect of lumbar sympathectomy on regional tissue circulation have utilized the local clearance of radioactive isotopes. No significant change in the clearance of these substances in muscle have been noted following lumbar sympathectomy in man. However, the data on skin clearance remains conflicting.
Vascular and Endovascular Surgery, Vol. 6, No. 5, 227-238 (1972)
http://ves.sagepub.com/cgi/pdf_extract/6/5/227