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

The present evidence suggests that the tonic discharge of normally functioning sympathetic nerves is capable of facilitating the response to angiotensin and that sympathectomy results in an abolition of this effect.

Effect of Acute Sympathectomy on Responses to Angiotensin and Norepinephrine

B. G. Zimmerman Ph.D.1
(Circulation Research. 1962;11:780.)
© 1962 American Heart Association, Inc.