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

Monday, July 25, 2011

the decrease in CBF induced by chronic sympathectomy cannot be attributed to the development of hypersensitivity

Thus the decrease in CBF induced by chronic sympathectomy cannot be attributed to the development of hypersensitivity to catecholamines. This decrease remained stable whatever the value of resting flow and was maintained under anesthesia. It is concluded that, as in the peripheral circulation, chronic sympathectomy affects the equilibrium of the vascular smooth muscle fibers, but that circulating amines play no compensatory role in the cerebral circulation because of the blood-brain barrier.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0006899385902434