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

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Effects of 6-hydroxydopamine on dopamine and noradrenaline content

Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's Archives of Pharmacology

Volume 329, Number 3 / May, 1985

P. Soares-da-Silva1 Contact Information and R. Davidson1

(1) Laboratorio de Farmacologia, Faculdade de Medicina, P-4200 Porto, Portugal

Received: 29 October 1984 Accepted: 27 January 1985

6-OHDA and pargyline plus 6-OHDA induced a parallel decrease of the noradrenaline and dopamine content in the main trunk of the mesenteric artery, femoral artery and heart. In the proximal branches of the mesenteric artery, renal and splenic arteries 6-OHDA selectively reduced noradrenaline (by 50%) without changes in dopamine levels. Previous treatment with pargyline abolished this selectivity and depleted the tissue levels of both noradrenaline and dopamine by 75%.

The present findings suggest: an independent dopamine presence in the proximal branches of the mesenteric artery, renal artery and splenic artery; that noradrenaline and dopamine are in one and the same structure in the heart, femoral artery and the main trunk of the mesenteric artery; the saphenous vein is more resistant to chemical sympathectomy than arterial blood vessels; the changes in plasma catecholamine concentrations are probably related to a compensatory mechanism initiated at the adrenal medulla.