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

Sunday, April 13, 2008

arousal related hormone affects memory processing

A significant number of animal and human studies demonstrate that memories for new experiences are encoded more effectively under environmental or laboratory conditions which elevate peripheral concentrations of the hormone epinephrine and in turn, induce emotional arousal. Although this phenomenon has been replicated across several learning paradigms, understanding of how this arousal related hormone affects memory processing remains obscure because epinephrine does not freely enter into the central circulation to produce any direct effects on the brain. This study examined whether epinephrine’s actions on the CNS may be mediated by the initial activation of peripheral vagal fibers that project to the brain.

Epinephrine administration increases neural impulses propagated along the vagus nerve: Role of peripheral β-adrenergic receptors

T. Miyashitaa and C.L. Williamsb,

aDepartment of Neurosciences, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA

bDepartment of Psychology, The University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904, USA


Received 9 June 2005;
revised 17 August 2005;
accepted 29 August 2005.
Available online 17 October 2005.