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

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Sympathectomy is by no means a benign procedure, and sympathectomy for sweating can induce pain and allodynia

"As to sympathetic block, or sympathectomy, Seddon (1964) when writing of acute ischaemia said 'let us hope that the completely futile sympathetic block will not have been done'. Birnstingl (1982), vascular surgeon to the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital for some years, said 'sympathetic block is useless'; sympathectomy has no place in the treatment of acute ischaemia..." (p. 308)



"Sympathectomy is by no means a benign procedure, and sympathectomy for sweating can induce pain and allodynia at the border zone which is sometimes associated with pronounced increase in sweating in that area." (p. 534)


Surgical Disorders of the Peripheral Nerves


Rolfe Birch
Springer, Jan 21, 2011 - Medical - 512 pages





original article published in Ann R Coll Surg Engl 2002; 84:181-184"



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