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, July 8, 2013

Vascular sympathetic denervation can lead to degeneration of the smooth muscle of arteries leading to medial arterial calcification and stiffening of the arteries

Sympathetic denervation of the peripheral arterial system may occur quite early in the evolution of neuropathy and has major effects on blood flow and vascular responses and causes structural changes in the arterial wall (Edmonds 2004). Vascular sympathetic denervation can lead to degeneration of the smooth muscle of arteries leading to medial arterial calcification and stiffening of the arteries. This calcification may assume the histological characteristics of bone.
   Unilateral lumbar sympathectomy in humans, both in diabetics and non-diabetics, has been show to result in medial wall calcification on the ipsilateral side (Goebel and Fuessl 1983). Unilateral sympathectomy in animals leads to excess deposition of cholesterol on the operated side and the occurrence of cholesterol sclerosis in the rabbit's aorta was accelerated by removal of the coeliac ganglion (Harrison 1938). Furthermore, in animal models, denervation of smooth muscle leads to striking pathological changes, including atrophy of muscle fibres with foci of degeneration (Kerper and Collier 1926). Arterial calcification in initiated within senescent atrophic smooth muscle (Morgan 1980).
   Medial arterial calcification in the Pima Indians is significantly associated with an increased prevalence of cardiovascular mortality (Everhart et al 1988). Medial calcification may be important factor in development of peripheral vascular disease, which in diabetes shows a predilection for the distal arteries below the knee and is unexplained. Chantelau reported an association of below knee atherosclerosis to medial arterial calcification (Chantelau et al. 1995).
p. 653

Autonomic Failure: A Textbook of Clinical Disorders of the Autonomic Nervous System[Hardcover]

Christopher J. Mathias (Author), Roger Bannister (Author)
  • Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 5 edition (July 24, 2013)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0198566344
  • ISBN-13: 978-0198566342