The Autonomic Nervous System: An Introduction to Basic and Clinical Concepts
By Otto Appenzeller, Emilio Oribe
Edition: 5, illustrated
Published by Elsevier Health Sciences, 1997
ISBN 0444827617, 9780444827616
"Sympathectomy is a technique about which we have limited knowledge, applied to disorders about which we have little understanding." Associate Professor Robert Boas, Faculty of Pain Medicine of the Australasian College of Anaesthetists and the Royal College of Anaesthetists, The Journal of Pain, Vol 1, No 4 (Winter), 2000: pp 258-260
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Shivering - a normal response during fever is eliminated by sympathectomy
During fever pyrogen is released from leucocytes and this agent causes the disturbed thermoregualtion (Atkins, 1960). For this response to occur, an intact efferent sympathetic system is required because fever can be markedly reduced by bilateral sympathectomy in the cat (Pinkston, 1935). In man, pyrogen seems to act above the level of the 5th cervical spinal cord segment; for a patient with a lesion at that level the intravennours administration of pyrogen produced shivering in normally innervated muscles only and no alteration in hand blood flow was seen (Cooper at al., 1964)