Pain medicine: the requisites in anesthesiology
By Stephen E. Abram
Edition: illustrated
Published by Elsevier Health Sciences, 2006
"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
Thursday, May 21, 2009
sympathectomy can itself trigger a painful syndrome
Finally, it should be noted that neuropathic, painful states are not invariably sympathetic dependent. Clinically, 'sympathetically maintained' and 'non-sympathetically maintained' states of pain can be differentiated, based on the fact that in some patients neuropathic pain can be relieved by sympathetic blocks. Furthermore, surgical sympathectomy can itself trigger a painful syndrome in some patients.