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

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Parallels between post sympathectomy patient's symptoms and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Dr. Goldstein's CFS/FM protocol revolves around his understanding of these ailments as neurosomatic disorders. In helping to define such disorders, Dr. Goldstein says patients afflicted "do not feel, think, or function properly because the brain does not handle information properly." According to his research, Dr. Goldstein believes brain circuitry and transmittal of data for proper bodily function and health have become altered in conditions like CFS. Further, Dr. Goldstein comments "how the brain, the immune system, and the hormonal system simultaneously regulate the function of each other…is usually 'out of whack' in various ways in patients with neurosomatic disorders."

Dr. Goldstein believes that neurotransmitters, chemical substances that act as information messengers in the brain, are abnormally low in this condition. Norepinephrine and dopamine are two such neurotransmitters lacking in CFS patients. When these are decreased, the brain has difficulty assessing relevance of the numerous messages it constantly receives. Because of this, mentally challenging situations such as taking a test or sensory stimulating situations such as a shopping at a mall can be overwhelming.

Another cause of this easily distractible state is elevated levels of substance P. Substance P is a chemical that transmits pain messages. Overproduction of substance P results in increased sensations of pain.
Article by John W. Addington on Jay A. Goldstein's book:
Betrayal by the Brain: The Neurologic Basis of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia Syndrome, and Related Neural Network Disorders
Published by Haworth Press, 1996