"Sympathectomy is a technique about which we have limited knowledge, applied to disorders about which we have little understanding." Associate Professor Robert Boas, Faculty of Pain Medicine of the Australasian College of Anaesthetists and the Royal College of Anaesthetists, The Journal of Pain, Vol 1, No 4 (Winter), 2000: pp 258-260
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, October 26, 2010
The nerve endings in Schwann cells under the endothelium degenerated after sympathectomy
Monday, October 25, 2010
After sympathectomy, denervation supersensitivity may be associated with recurrence of pain
Pain
Volume 67, Issues 2-3, October 1996, Pages 317-326
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Effects of Sympathectomy on Muscle
an increase in cell size. There was a reduction in the proportion of slow myosin light chain isoforms from 50 ± 7 to 34 ± 6%. Noradrenaline levels were increased on the denervated sides but this may reflect greater vascularity. Calcium content did not correlate with fibre type but there was a positive relation with both noradrenaline content (r= 0·73;
P<0·05) and DNA content (r= 0·84; P<0·05). It is concluded that sympathectomy induces several biochemical changes in skeletal muscle which constitute a change and increase in fast myosin light chain synthesis and a corresponding fibre type transformation.
Clinical Physiology (Oxford, England) 1988 Apr; vol 8 (issue 2): pp 181-91
2.
The objective of this paper was to study the effect of sympathetic innervation on morphological and histochemical aspects of skeletal muscle tissue. Rabbit masseter muscle was studied using histochemical and immunohistochemical methods for periods of up to 18 months post-sympathectomy. The morphological and enzymatic characteristics of control masseter muscles were similar on both the left and right sides. The main features were muscle fibres with a mosaic pattern and a predominance of type IIa fibres, followed by type I. Type IIb fibres showed very low frequency. Sympathectomized animals showed varying degrees of metabolic and morphological alterations, especially 18 months after sympathectomy. The first five groups showed a higher frequency of type I fibres, whilst the oldest group showed a higher frequency of type IIb fibres. In the oldest group, a significant variation in fibre diameter was observed. Many fibres showed small diameter, atrophy, hypertrophy, splitting, and necrosis. Areas with fibrosis were observed. Thus cervical sympathectomy induced morphological alterations in the masseter muscles. These alterations were, in part, similar to both denervation and myopathy.
International Journal of Experimental Pathology
Volume 82, Issue 2, pages 123–128, April 2001
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
CNS activation following peripheral sympathectomy
Many studies have demonstrated that ablation of the sympathetic nervous
system (SNS) alters subsequent immune responses. Researchers have
presumed that the altered immune responses are predominantly the result
of the peripheral phenomenon of denervation. We, however, hypothesized
that chemical sympathectomy will signal and activate the central nervous
system (CNS). Activation of the CNS was determined by
immunocytochemical visualization of Fos protein in brains from male
C57BL/6 mice at 8, 24, and 48 h following denervation. A dramatic
induction of Fos protein was found in the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) of
the hypothalamus and other specific brain regions at 8 and 24 h compared
to vehicle control mice. Dual-antigen labeling demonstrates that
corticotrophin releasing factor (CRF)-containing neurons in the PVN are
activated by chemical sympathectomy; however, neurons containing
neurotransmitters which may modulate CRF neurons, such as vasopressin,
tyrosine hydroxylase, and adrenocorticotropin, do not coexpress Fos. Our
findings suggest an involvement of the CNS in sympathectomy-induced
alterations of immunity.
Central Nervous System Activation following Peripheral Chemical Sympathectomy: Implications for Neural–Immune Interactions
Brain, Behavior, and Immunity
Volume 12, Issue 3, September 1998, Pages 230-241
Monday, October 4, 2010
Changes in hemodynamics of the carotid and middle cerebral arteries before and after endoscopic sympathectomy in patients with palmar hyperhidrosis
Journal of neurosurgery
1999, vol. 90, no3, pp. 463-467 (38 ref.)