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, September 5, 2010

absent sympathetic skin responses post ETS

Compared with the presympathectomy rate, the rate of absent SSR (sympathetic skin responses) also significantly increased after sympathectomy: from 20 to 76% after electrical stimulation and 36 to 64% after deep inspiration stimulation, respectively (p <>

CONCLUSIONS: In contrast to compensatory sweating in other parts of the body after T2-3 sympathetomy, improvement: in plantar sweating was shown in 72% and worsened symptoms in 6% of patients. The intraoperative plantar skin temperature change and perioperative SSR demonstrated a correlation between these changes.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11453433

A sympathectomy does not cure hyperhidrosis

A sympathectomy does not cure hyperhidrosis. It does not leave a person "free of hyperhidrosis". The best that can be said is that is stops all sweating in one large area of the body, and makes the other part of the body sweat a lot more.

http://editthis.info/corposcindosis/Brat_Dialog

experts agree that sympathectomy, like the other nerve-cutting operations, is getting out of hand

Sympathectomy, cutting of the sympathetic nerves, is causing the most violent arguments of all. The operation is now prescribed for a wide variety of ailments, from excessive sweating to high blood pressure. Nobody knows how many thousands of sympathectomies surgeons perform each year; there are an estimated 1,000 in Manhattan alone. Admittedly the operation is a life-saver in many cases of gangrene, angina pectoris, hypertension. But some sympathectomies may make men sterile. And because a sympathectomy reduces pain, some doctors consider it insidiously dangerous, e.g., a patient could have a perforating ulcer without pain. The experts agree that sympathectomy, like the other nerve-cutting operations, is getting out of hand.
Time Magazine,
Monday, Jun. 30, 1947 Losing Nerves
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)