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

Saturday, July 31, 2010

Differences in the injury/sprouting response

While increased hilar and decreased distal NA innervation in arthritic rats was strikingly similar to that of non-arthritic 6-OHDA-treated rats, there were differences in splenic compartments innervated by sympathetic nerves between these groups. In 6-OHDA-treated rats, NA nerves re-innervated splenic compartments normally innervated by sympathetic nerves. In arthritic rats, sympathetic nerves returned to normally innervated splenic compartments, but also abundantly innervated red pulp. These findings suggest that splenic sympathetic nerves undergo a disease-associated injury/sprouting response with disease development that alters the normal pattern and distribution of NA innervation. The altered sympathetic innervation pattern is likely to change NA signaling to immune cell targets, which could exert long-term regulatory influences on initiation, maintenance, and resolution of immune responses that impact disease pathology.
Brain, Behavior & Immunity; Feb2009, Vol. 23 Issue 2, p276-285, 10p

Phantom sweating occurs frequently after sympathectomy

To describe the biology of phantom sweating, a novel autonomic neuropathy symptom, based on a description of a patient with a small fiber and autonomic neuropathy. Clinical and laboratory assessments. Evidence of a generalized small fiber and autonomic neuropathy. Phantom sweating occurs frequently after sympathectomy but has not been reported previously in patients with a somatosensory or autonomic neuropathy. We suggest that this symptom is an autonomic paresthesia.
Clinical Autonomic Research; Dec2008, Vol. 18 Issue 6, p352-354, 3p,

Similar pathological effects of sympathectomy and hypercholesterolemia on arterial smooth muscle cells and fibroblasts

In a previous study, we showed that after sympathectomy, the femoral (FA) but not the basilar (BA) artery from non-pathological rabbits manifests migration of adventitial fibroblasts (FBs) into the media and loss of medial smooth muscle cells (SMCs). The aim of the present study was to verify whether similar behaviour of arteries occurred in the pathological context of atherosclerosis. Thus, similar experiments were conducted on hypercholesterolemic rabbits, which were chemically sympathectomized with 6-hydroxydopamine (n=4) or treated with vehicle for control (n=5). Cross-sections of BA and FA were immunolabelled for five markers of phenotypic modulation of vascular SMCs and FBs: vimentin, desmin, α-smooth muscle actin, β-isoform of actin, and h-caldesmon and examined using a confocal microscope. Also, 3D images were constructed and morphometric analysis performed using image analysis software. Both intact and sympathectomized BA and FA developed atherosclerotic plaques, but the thickening of the intima was more advanced in sympathectomized animals, as judged by increased plaque frequency and by the phenotypic modulation of SMCs in the intima. Our results show that in the media of FAs hypercholesterolemia induces changes similar to those observed in sympathectomized rabbits in non-pathological conditions, i.e., migration of adventitial FBs to the media and loss of medial SMCs. These latter changes, which can be ascribed to pathological events, were accentuated after sympathectomy in the hypercholesterolemic rabbits. The present study reveals that pathological events, including migration and phenotypic modulation of vascular FBs and loss of SMCs, may be under the influence of sympathetic nerves. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]