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

Friday, June 20, 2008

Sympathectomy for the treatment of polymorphic ventricular tachycardia

Bilateral thoracoscopic cervical sympathectomy for the treatment of recurrent polymorphic ventricular tachycardia.


Turley AJ, Thambyrajah J, Harcombe AA.
Despite potassium and magnesium supplements, beta blockade, implantation of a single then dual chamber implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD), amiodarone, nicorandil, and mexiletine, the patient continued to experience arrhythmia storms, receiving more than 700 ICD discharges over seven months. She was ultimately treated successfully with bilateral thoracoscopic cervicothoracic sympathectomies. This is the first reported bilateral thoracoscopic treatment of a patient with LQTS and symptomatic life threatening ventricular tachyarrhythmias refractory to current pharmacological and pacing techniques.

Cardiothoracic Division, The James Cook University Hospital, Marton Road, Middlesbrough TS4 3BW, UK. andrew.turley@stees.nhs.uk

Heart. 2005 Jan;91(1):15-7.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15604323