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, July 25, 2010

paraplegia as a postoperative complication

SIX YEARS AGO we encountered paraplegia as a postoperative complication in a patient who had undergone thoraco-lumbar sympathectomy for hypertension. Such a phenomenon was unique in our experience.
After a search of the literature and a number of informal inquiries among our colleagues, we were surprised to find that such an occurrence is not as unusual as we had believed. Bassett, in 1948,1 reporting on his experience with sympathectomy in the treatment of hypertension, stated: 'We
have had four cases of thrombosis of the anterior spinal artery with resultant permanent residual ischemic myelitis.
Poppen, in a personal communication, has stated that, although this complication has not
occurred in his own experienoe, three cases have been brought to his attention in which
paraplegia followed thoraco-lumbar sympathectomy for hypertension. Therefore, we have knowledge of eight cases in which such a catastrophe followed an elective operation which has enjoyed wide usageduring the past decade.
Annals of Surgery, M a r c h, 1 9 5 4