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

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Successful lawyer died after procedure to cure blushing

ALAN Synnott was the country's leading solicitor specialising in personal injuries.
He had built up a large and very successful practice, but the 44-year-old father of three suffered from social phobia and facial blushing.
The blushing was interfering with his ability to speak in public and to run his office and deal with staff.
He was referred to a surgeon for an operation to stop the blushing but, during the operation, a vein and artery were damaged and massive bleeding occurred.
Emergency surgery had to be carried out and Mr Synnott, according to court papers, lost over three times his total blood volume in a 3½-hour period.
Three days later, after brain scans, he was pronounced dead.
Yesterday his grieving widow, Eleanor Synnott, settled her action for damages for €5m. "This has given me closure but no money is going to compensate me for the enormous loss of my wonderful husband and father of my children," Mrs Synnott said outside the Four Courts.
She had sued Austin Leahy, a surgeon attached to the Bon Secours Hospital, Glasnevin, Dublin, who carried out the operation over two years ago.
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/5m-payout-to-family-after-fatal-operation-223707.html