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

Monday, December 29, 2008

Adrenal Tyrosine Hydroxylase: Compensatory Increase in Activity after Chemical Sympathectomy

Destruction of peripheral sympathetic nerve endings with 6-hydroxydopamine causes a disappearance of cardiac tyrosine hydroxylase, accompanied by a twofold increase in adrenal tyrosine hydroxylase and a small increase in phenyl-ethanolanine-N-methyl transferase.
Robert A. Mueller 1, Hans Thoenen 1, and Julius Axelrod 1
Science 31 January 1969:
Vol. 163. no. 3866, pp. 468 - 469
DOI: 10.1126/science.163.3866.468

Cardiac hypertrophy accelerated by left cervical sympathectomy

Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences (CMLS)
Volume 37, Number 7 / July, 1981

Summary Cardiac hypertrophy in spontaneously hypertensive rats was accelerated by denervation of the left cervical sympathetic ganglia. Supersensitivity due to denervation may also exist in cardiac muscles.
This work was supported by a grant of the Ministry of Education for 1980.