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, October 22, 2012

Stellate ganglion block may relieve hot flashes by interrupting the sympathetic nervous system

Stellate ganglion block may relieve hot flash... [Med Hypotheses. 2007] - PubMed - NCBI: "the wide range of conditions that have been reported to respond favorably to stellate ganglion block suggest that its effectiveness may not be solely the result of increased blood flow nor restricted just to its sphere of innervation. We have found that stellate ganglion block is effective in the treatment of hot flashes in postmenopausal women, as well as those with estrogen depletion resulting from breast cancer treatment. Based on evidence that hot flashes may be centrally mediated and that the stellate ganglion has links with the central nervous system nuclei that modulate body temperature, we hypothesize that the stellate ganglion block provides relief of hot flashes by interrupting the central nervous system connections with the sympathetic nervous system, allowing the body's temperature-regulating mechanisms to reset. If this mechanism can be confirmed, this would provide women with intractable hot flashes with an effective, potentially long-lasting means of relieving their symptoms, and potentially widen the range of indications for stellate ganglion block to include other centrally mediated syndromes."

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