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

Sympathectomy and blood sugar levels

4. Journal of Tissue Research Vol. 4 (1) 89-94 (2004)

Interactions of autonomic nervous system, pituitary-adrenocortical axis and corticotrophin and cortico-sterone in the regulation of blood sugar level in rats

Pilo, B. and Sule, J.

Division of Neuroendocrinology, Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, Vadodara-390 002 India.


Chemical sympathectomy (CSX) reduced the corticosterone concentration slightly but the ACTH level increased significantly. When sympathectomy was combined with vagotomy (CSX+VGX) an increase in both corticosterone and ACTH levels was observed. Chemical sympathectomy and adrenalectomy (CSX+ADX) also produced a maximum decrease in corticosterone level and a maximum level of ACTH. Vagotomy (VGX) alone or together with CSX or ADX produced hyperglycaemia while chemical sympathectomy alone or together with adrenalectomy produced hypoglycaemia. In conclusion it could be stated that in rats in which vagotomy was performed singly and in combination with sympathectomy, glucocorticoid secretion increased along with increased corticosterone. Chemical sympathectomy alone or together with adrenalectomy reduced the corticosterone concentration in blood together with hypoglycaemic condition. ACTH concentration by and large was more when corticosterone secretion was decreased.