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, January 16, 2012

PATHOPHYSIOLOGY OF ONE-LUNG VENTILATION

In estimating the degree of shunt that is created by one-lung ventilation when it is performed in the lateral decubitus position, on average, 40% of cardiac output perfuses the nondependent lung and the remaining 60% perfuses the dependent lung (Fig. 1).15 Mechanisms that tend to decrease the percent of cardiac output perfusing the nondependent, nonventilated lung are passive (e.g., mechanical-like gravity, surgical manipulation, amount of pre-existing lung disease) or active (e.g., hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction).15 The normal response of the pulmonary vasculature to atelectasis is an increase in pulmonary vascular resistance (in the atelectatic lung), and the increase in atelectatic lung resistance is almost entirely caused by hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction. Hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction is a protective reflex mechanism that diverts blood flow away from the atelectatic lung. With an intact hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction response, the transpulmonary shunt through the nondependent lung decreases to approximately 23% of the cardiac output (see Fig. 1).
Anesthesiology Clinics of North America
Volume 19, Issue 3, 1 September 2001, Pages 435-453

hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction may be impaired after Sympathectomy

It is well known that hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction(HPV) plays an important role to protect hypoxemia during the atelectasis induced by one-lung ventilation. Thoracic sympathectomy may have effects on pulmonary vasculature(HPV) and hemodynamics during one-lung anesthesia.

Mean arterial blood pressure was decreased from 81.9+/-2.89 to 73.2+/-2.49 mmHg after thoracic sympathectomy and heart rate was decreased from 104.4+/-3.12 to 88.2+/-2.31beats/min. Arterial oxygen tension was decressed from 570.5+/-17.9 to 521.4+/-23.2mmHg after position change, and decreased to 271.1+/-28.1 mmHg under one-lung ventilation, and finally decreased to 217.0+/-18.3 mmHg after thoracic sympathectomy. With the above results, we can conclude that patients for TES should be carefully observed during and after the procedure, and hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction may be impaired after TES.
Korean J Anesthesiol. 1993 Aug;26(4):695-699.