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

Thursday, August 30, 2012

The custom of a majority is no guarantee of safety and is seldom a guide to best medical practice.


Cameron`s claim that there has been only one death attributable to synchronous bilateral thoracoscopic sympathectomy is implausible. Surgeons and anaesthetists are reticent in publicizing such events and Civil Law Reports of settled cases are an inadequate measure of the current running total. The custom of a majority is no guarantee of safety and is seldom a guide to best medical practice.
Jack Collin,
Consultant Surgeon
Oxford
http://www.bmj.com/content/320/7244/1221?tab=responses