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

Friday, March 19, 2010

Pulmonary Functional Abnormalities after Upper Dorsal Sympathectomy

Results of pulmonary function studies were compared in two groups of 12 patients each, in whom upper dorsal sympathectomy was performed by the supraclavicular or by the fransaxillary approach. Patients were evaluated clinically, radiologically and functionally before operation and again three weeks, three months and six months after denervation. Findings suggest that an increase in small airway resistance concomitant with some degree of paeumoconstricfion occurred after upper dorsal sympathectomy by both routes. Muscular transection and possible phrenic nerve retraction dam-
age due to the operative procedure could not be the cause of the above abnormalities because the Iuspiratory and expiratory forces, inspiratory peak flow and diaphragmatic movement were not significantly reduced after operation by both approaches. (Adar)
1980;77;651-655 Chest

Gustatory Phenomena After Upper Dorsal Sympathectomy

In a series of 100 bilateral upper dorsal sympathectomies performed for palmar hyperhidrosis, gustatory sweating and other gustatory phenomena were reported by 68 of 93 patients (73%), followed up for an average of 11/2 years. These gustatory phenomena were quite different from physiologic gustatory sweating: a wide range of gustatory stimuli caused a variety of phenomena in varied locations. There was a negative correlation between the incidence of these phenomena and the occurrence of Horner's syndrome after sympathectomy. Analysis of our observations, and of clinical and experimental work of others, leads to the conclusion that gustatory phenomena after upper dorsal sympathectomy are the result of preganglionic sympathetic regeneration or collateral sprouting with aberrant synapses in the superior cervical ganglion. (Adar)

Arch Neurol. 1977;34(10):619-623.

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