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

Saturday, February 5, 2011

in one-lung ventilation (OLV), shunt fraction increases, oxygenation is impaired, and hypoxemia may occur

When switching from two-lung to one-lung ventilation (OLV), shunt fraction increases, oxygenation is impaired, and hypoxemia may occur. Hypoxemia during OLV may be predicted from measurements of lung function, distribution of perfusion between the lungs, whether the right or the left lung is ventilated, and whether the operation will be performed in the supine or in the lateral decubitus position. Hypoxemia during OLV may be prevented by applying a ventilation strategy that avoids alveolar collapse while minimally impairing perfusion of the dependent lung. Choice of anesthesia does not influence oxygenation during clinical OLV. Hypoxemia during OLV may be treated symptomatically by increasing inspired fraction of oxygen, by ventilating, or by using continuous positive airway pressure in the nonventilated lung. Hypoxemia during OLV may be treated causally by correcting the position of the double-lumen tube, clearing the main bronchi of the ventilated lung from secretions, and improving the ventilation strategy.
 Hypoxemia during One-lung Ventilation: Prediction, Prevention, and Treatment

Karzai, Waheedullah; Schwarzkopf, Konrad

Anesthesiology. 110(6):1402-1411, June 2009.