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

Substance-P and bone resorption

Sympathectomy is known to result in localized bone resorption in the middle ear and at other sites. (Sandhu et al 1989) Sherman & Chole (1996) found that sympathectomy induced bone resorption could be blocked by capsaicin in vivo. It was concluded that sympathectomy led to a secondary release of substance-P and then directly or indirectly to the activation of osteoclasts. Substance-P also stimulates bone resorption in vitro. It was hypothesized that substance-P is required for other types of bone remodleing, including adaptive bone remodeling.

1997, 190, Session F8, Poster
Adaptive bone remodeling in the middle ear is substance-p dependent
*R.A. Chole, S.P. Tinling (University of California School of Medicine, Davis, California)