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, March 24, 2008

"paradoxic gangrene" AS A COMPLICATION OF SYMPATHECTOMY

TYLER, L TERRELL M.D.; KAPLAN, I W M.D.
Institution
From the Department of Surgery, Louisiana State University School of Medicine and Surgical Service of Touto Infirmary, New Orleans, La.
Title
Paradoxic Gangrene Following Lumbar Sympathectomy.[Article]
Source
Southern Medical Journal. 50(1):63-66, January 1957.
Abstract
The occasional complication of "paradoxic gangrene" following lumbar sympathectomy is not well understood. Several such instances are reported with the suggestion of an additional etiologic factor.