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, April 17, 2008

Can Sympathectomy for Hyperhidrosis be classified as "cure" of hyperhidrosis

Sympathectomy in the case of (for example) Palmar HH exchanges a benign (although understandably uncomfortable condition) for an often disabling, uncontrollable (and more distressing than the original condition) full body sweating, that in some cases requires full clothes change 3 times a day. Patients after the surgery are unable to continue their life as they lived it before the operation. The psychological costs are high, and there have been reported suicides among patients who were struggling with the side-effects. The most recent one in Sydney, Australia.
Which part of this surgery can be called 'treatment' or 'cure'? What is the definition of a 'cure''?