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

Thursday, February 12, 2009

The role of cervical sympathetic nervous system in secretions of stress or pineal hormone

These findings suggested that some stress stimuli are conducted via cervical sympathetic nerves to the hypothalamus, which is reduced by SGB (stellate ganglion block), and to the pineal gland at night, which causes increased melatonin and decreased serotonin levels.
The Pain Clinic, Volume 13, Number 3, 2001 , pp. 233-244(12)