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

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

TNF at a site of immunological injury may lead to chronic activation of innate immune cells and to chronic inflammatory responses

There is now good evidence to demonstrate that aberrations in tumour necrosis factor (TNF) production in vivo may be either pathogenic or protective and several plausible mechanisms may explain these contrasting activities. According to the classic pro-inflammatory scenario, failure to regulate the production of TNF at a site of immunological injury may lead to chronic activation of innate immune cells and to chronic inflammatory responses, which may consequently lead to organ specific inflammatory pathology and tissue damage.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10577971