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, December 14, 2008

Brain-Adipose tissue cross talk

Local injections of the sensory nerve neurotoxin capsaicin into WAT selectively destroy this innervation. Just as surgical removal of WAT pads triggers compensatory increases in lipid accretion by non-excised WAT depots, capsaicin-induced sensory denervation triggers increases in lipid accretion of non-capsaicin-injected WAT depots, suggesting that these nerves convey about body fat levels to the brain.
Proc Nutr Soc. 2005 Feb;64(1):53-64.Click here to read
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15877923?ordinalpos=21&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_DefaultReportPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSuminformation

risk of vascular insufficieny and subsequent dysfunction of thoracolumbar autonomic outflow to the head and neck

Cadaveric studies of the blood supply to the human cervical sympathetic chain and ganglia are lacking in the English literature. This study seeks to elucidate the gross blood supply of the cervical sympathetic chain so as to avoid surgical disruption of these vessels and thus decrease the risk of vascular insufficieny and subsequent dysfunction of thoracolumbar autonomic outflow to the head and neck.

Conclusions: Although sympathetic injury is a rare consequence of cervical operations, the current data should be useful to the surgeon who operates in the cervical region so as to avoid potential complications from disruption of the primary blood supply of the cervical sympathetic chain and ganglia.
European Journal of Morphology, Volume 40, Issue 5 December 2002 , pages 283 - 288
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a725290831~db=all

Parallels between post sympathectomy symptoms and Spinal Cord Injury symptoms

Autonomic component of spinal cord injury:

Hypotension, Skin Hyperaemia, Bradycardia (unopposed vagatonia), Low body temperature - high skin temperature,

Spinal shock involves loss of sympathetic autonomic function.

Secondary changes:
-Accumulation of extracellular neurotransmitters: Serotonin, Catecholamines, Glutamate are TOXIC to cells
-Free radical accumulation

http://209.85.173.132/search?q=cache:Yir6NMnAPdEJ:www.drramani.com/presentations/Acute_Spinal_Cord_Injury.pdf+compression+of+the+cervical+sympathetic+chain&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=69&gl=au&client=firefox-a

Sympathetic chain injury called 'complication'. Now this same 'complication' is marketed for people with palmar hyperhidrosis and blushing.

Cervical sympathetic chain injury is a rare complication of surgery for thyroid and parathyroid conditions.
ANZ Journal of Surgery. 74(6):442-445, June 2004.
HARDING, JANE L. MB BS; SYWAK, MARK S. MB BS, FRACS; SIDHU, STAN MB BS, PhD, FRACS; DELBRIDGE, LEIGH W. MD, FRACS

Eye innervation - part of the thermoregulatory system

Our results show that cold thermoreceptors sensitive to small temperature changes are distributed throughout the entire ocular surface, most frequently in the highly vascularized perilimbal episclera, but also in the posterior segment of the eye. Nerve fibers activated by cold had spotlike receptive fields and responded to temperature reductions with a nerve impulse discharge that started as soon as the local temperature began to decline, and increased monotonically in firing frequency in parallel with the decrease in temperature.
http://www.iovs.org/cgi/content/full/44/2/697

Transection of the sympathetic chain

Activating transcription factor 3 immunoreactivity identifies small populations of axotomized neurons in rat cervical sympathetic ganglia after transection of the preganglionic cervical sympathetic trunk.

These data indicate that, after transection of the CST, neuronal labeling in the SCG and MICG is restricted to axotomized neurons but that in addition there is extensive labeling of glial cells associated with anterograde degeneration within the SCG.
http://www.nextbio.com/b/literature/literature.nb?id=17583680&query=Right+cervical+sympathetic+trunk&author=

Selective brain cooling following sympathectomy

We have investigated the role of the sympathetic innervation of the vasculature of the head in the control of selective brain cooling of sheep, during exposure to high and low ambient temperatures and during endotoxin-induced fever. Bilateral removal of the superior cervical ganglia resulted in a significant reduciton of hypothalamic temperture during all procedures. Respiratory rate was also depressed by the sympathectomy, apparently mainly as a result of a decrease in nasal airway patency. Rectal temperature changes after sympathectomy were dependent on the experimental conditions, and the rectal — hypothalamic temperature difference was enhanced during heat exposure and fever. Our results support the contention that sympathetically mediated changes in nasal blood flow and in venous return from the nasal cavity, via the angularis oculi and facial veins, may be involved in the control of selective brain cooling in sheep.

Pflügers Archiv European Journal of Physiology
PublisherSpringer Berlin / Heidelberg
ISSN0031-6768 (Print) 1432-2013 (Online)
IssueVolume 417, Number 4 / December, 1990

various other central physiological and metabolic events in cervical sympathectomized animals

Studies were conducted confirming supersensitivity to catecholamines on intraocular pressure and pupil size following bilateral superior cervical ganglionectomy in rabbits.
At the termination of these studies we examined changes in cyclic adenylic acid and prostaglandin content in jugular vein effluent and various brain and ocular tissues and fluids of the sympathectomized versus control animals. In the blood effluent we found significant elevation of cyclic adenylic acid and significant lowering of prostaglandin F1alpha in the sympathectomized animals. Although we found elevation of prostaglandin in certain tissues of the sympathectomized animals, there were no significant changes in cyclic adenylic acid levels between sympathectomized and control animals in the tissues examined. The findings of prostaglandin (blood and tissue) and cyclic adenylic acid (blood) changes in sympathectomized animals, associated with known changes in intraocular pressure and pupil size (due to catecholamine supersensitivity) must elicit further interest in the correlation and interpretation of various other central physiological and metabolic events in cervical sympathectomized animals.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/213796?ordinalpos=1&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_DiscoveryPanel.Pubmed_Discovery_RA&linkpos=3&log$=relatedarticles&logdbfrom=pubmed