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

Saturday, January 19, 2013

after sympathectomy "the extremity will be more apt to have disturbance of circulation and is left unprotected from fluctuation in circulation"


1. Sympathectomy is analogous to the act of killing the messenger. The sympathetic nervous system has the critical job of properly controlling and preserving the circulation in different parts of the body, especially in the extremities. By paralyzing the system, the extremity will be more apt to have disturbance of circulation and is left unprotected from fluctuation in circulation.
Sympathectomy is similar to permanently removing the central heat and air-conditioning system and never replacing it because of malfunction.
Sympathectomy permanently damages the temperature regulatory system. The reason sympathectomy does not cause side effects other than ineffective control of pain as well as impotence and orthostatic hypotension is because it is invariably partial and incomplete.H. Hooshmand, M.D.: Chronic Pain

9780849386671

Chronic Pain: Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Prevention and Management

Hooshang Hooshmand

ISBN 10: 0849386675 / 0-8493-8667-5 
ISBN 13: 9780849386671
Publisher: CRC Pr I Llc
Publication Date: 1993
Binding: Hardcover