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

Saturday, July 31, 2010

Similar pathological effects of sympathectomy and hypercholesterolemia on arterial smooth muscle cells and fibroblasts

In a previous study, we showed that after sympathectomy, the femoral (FA) but not the basilar (BA) artery from non-pathological rabbits manifests migration of adventitial fibroblasts (FBs) into the media and loss of medial smooth muscle cells (SMCs). The aim of the present study was to verify whether similar behaviour of arteries occurred in the pathological context of atherosclerosis. Thus, similar experiments were conducted on hypercholesterolemic rabbits, which were chemically sympathectomized with 6-hydroxydopamine (n=4) or treated with vehicle for control (n=5). Cross-sections of BA and FA were immunolabelled for five markers of phenotypic modulation of vascular SMCs and FBs: vimentin, desmin, α-smooth muscle actin, β-isoform of actin, and h-caldesmon and examined using a confocal microscope. Also, 3D images were constructed and morphometric analysis performed using image analysis software. Both intact and sympathectomized BA and FA developed atherosclerotic plaques, but the thickening of the intima was more advanced in sympathectomized animals, as judged by increased plaque frequency and by the phenotypic modulation of SMCs in the intima. Our results show that in the media of FAs hypercholesterolemia induces changes similar to those observed in sympathectomized rabbits in non-pathological conditions, i.e., migration of adventitial FBs to the media and loss of medial SMCs. These latter changes, which can be ascribed to pathological events, were accentuated after sympathectomy in the hypercholesterolemic rabbits. The present study reveals that pathological events, including migration and phenotypic modulation of vascular FBs and loss of SMCs, may be under the influence of sympathetic nerves. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]