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

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Similarities between RSD patients and post-sympathtectomy patients

Quantitative Evaluation of Sympathetic Nervous System Dysfunction in Patients with Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy

J. IDE, M. YAMAGA, T. KITAMURA and K. TAKAGI

From the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Kumamoto University School of Medicine, Kumamoto, Japan

Correspondence: J. Ide MD, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Kumamoto University School of Medicine 1–1–1 Honjo, Kumamoto 860, Japan.


We observed an increased blood flow but an unchanged vasoconstrictor response in the affected hand in stage 1 of the disorder, but in stage 2 there was a decreased blood flow and a stronger vasoconstriction following an inspiratory gasp. These results suggest that in RSD patients the sympathetic nervous system function is altered and is different in the various stages.