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

Monday, March 28, 2011

Surgical Denervation of Ocular Sympathetic Afferents Decreases Local Transforming Growth Factor-β and Abolishes Immune Privilege



Mounting evidence points to a role for the sympathetic nervous system in suppressing inflammation. This role might be of specific relevance for immune privilege in the eye, where, sporadically, patients with denervated sympathetic fibers develop chronic inflammation.

Our results show that in the absence of functional sympathetic fibers, the eye loses its ability to prevent either the immune rejection of intraocular allogeneic tumor cells or the suppression of delayed type hypersensitivity responses against soluble antigens injected in the anterior chamber. This loss of immune privilege is accompanied by a decrease in the concentration of transforming growth factor-β in the aqueous humor. These results suggest that immune privilege is lost in the absence of a functional sympathetic innervation of the eye, allowing intraocular immune responses to become exaggerated. We conclude that ocular sympathetic nerves are critical for the generation and maintenance of immune privilege in the eye through the facilitation of local transforming growth factor-β production.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2731140/