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

unavoidable consequence of sympathectomy

Pathological gustatory sweating and flushing can develop after injury to preganglionic cervico-thoracic sympathetic fibres, an unavoidable consequence of resecting that part of the sympathetic chain. The mechanism of this abnormal response is uncertain; conceivably, though, regeneration of injured salivatory fibres or collateral sprouting from nearby intact fibres creates aberrant connections between salivatory fibres and denervated vasomotor and sudomotor neurons in the superior cervical ganglion.(7) Commands to salivate would then be translated into commands to sweat and flush in the distribution of sympathetic denervation. Cross-innervation lower down in the stellate ganglion can also produce unusual and potentially distressing autonomic disturbances in the sympathetically-denervated arm (e.g., piloerection while eating).(8)
Drummond PD. A caution about surgical treatment for facial blushing. British Journal of Dermatology 2000; volume 142: pages 194-195.