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, April 19, 2008

The insular cortex is involved in cardiac regulation

S. M. Oppenheimer1 Contact Information, G. Kedem1 and W. M. Martin1

(1) Laboratory of Neurocardiology, Department of Neurology, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 600 North Wolfe Street, 21287-7585 Baltimore, Maryland, USA

Received: 18 December 1995 Accepted: 20 December 1995

Abstract The insular cortex is involved in cardiac regulation. The left insula is predominantly responsible for parasympathetic cardiovascular effects. Damage to this area could shift cardiovascular balance towards increased basal sympathetic tone (a proarrhythmic condition) and contribute to the excess cardiac mortality following stroke. Acute left insular stroke increased basal cardiac sympathetic tone and was associated with a decrease in randomness of heart rate variability. In addition, phase relationships between heart rate and blood pressure were disturbed, implying a disruption of oscillators involved in cardiovascular control. The insula appears to be involved in human heart rate regulation and damage to it may encourage a pro-arrhythmic state.