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, May 9, 2012

Iatrogenic harlequin syndrome resulting from sympathectomy

Postgrad Med J 2003;79:278 doi:10.1136/pmj.79.931.278
A 29 year old man with severe facial hyperhidrosis underwent an uncomplicated right thoracoscopic sympathectomy. Before operating on his left side, a starch-iodine preparation was applied to his face in order to demarcate residual sudomotor function. The preparation becomes blue on exposure to moisture, thereby representing residual sweat gland activity.
Figure 1 demonstrates that sympathetic innervation to the face is strictly unilateral, and nerve fibres do not appear to cross the midline. This is essentially an iatrogenic variation of the harlequin syndrome,2 which usually results from interruption of post-ganglionic sympathetic fibres secondary to malignant invasion.
His facial hyperhidrosis was completely treated once the contralateral sympathectomy was performed.
Figure 1