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

Sunday, August 21, 2011

denervation supersensitivity of alpha receptors after sympathectomy

There is, however, considerable risk of developing a post-sympathectomy pain syndrome that may be the result of a denervation supersensitivity of alpha receptors.
www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/.../Complex%20Regional%20Pain%20Syndrome-1...

Paradoxically it has been suggested that in some cases there may be abnormal vasoconstriction rather than the expected vasodilatation after sympathectomy. 
                  ats.ctsnetjournals.org/cgi/content/full/84/3/1025