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, December 28, 2009

heart rate was significantly reduced at rest (14%), at sub-maximal exercise (12.3%)

heart rate was significantly reduced at rest (14%), at sub-maximal exercise (12.3%), and at peak exercise (5.7%), together with a significant increase in oxygen pulse (11.8, 12.7, and 7.8%, respectively). The rate pressure product (RPP) was also significantly reduced following the surgical procedure at all three study stages, while all other physiological variables measured remained unchanged. It is suggested that thoracic-sympathetic denervation affects the heart, sweating, and circulation of the respective denervated region

Eur J Appl Physiol. 2008 Sep;104(1):79-86. Epub 2008 Jun 10.

"Other therapies included sympathectomy, severing the nerves to blood vessels (a surgery with a great risk of complication!)"

Your money or your life: strong medicine for America's health care system
By David M. Cutler
Oxford University Press US, 2005

Carbon dioxide absorption into the blood during thoracoscopic surgery

Respiratory function and pulmonary gas exchange are affected in thoracoscopic procedures where a pneumothorax is introduced using CO2. Carbon dioxide absorption into the blood during thoracoscopic surgery using intrathoracic carbon dioxide insufflation may lead to respiratory acidosis, increased ventilation requirements, and possible serious cardiovascular compromise.
http://www.koreamed.org/SearchBasic.php?RID=173908&DT=1

lactic acidosis, complication of thoracoscopic sympathectomy

We report a case of severe lactic acidosis in a patient undergoing thoracoscopic sympathectomy under general anesthesia who received repeated albuterol.
Lactic acidosis can occur in two different clinically distinguishable categories. The first (type A) occurs when oxygen delivery to the tissues is compromised. The second (type B) occurs when either lactate production is increased or lactate removal is decreased without obvious oxygen delivery problems. 7,8
β-2 Receptor activation produces excess glycogenolysis and lipolysis. 10 Increased glycogenolysis eventually leads to increased concentrations of pyruvate. Pyruvate is converted to acetyl CoA, which enters the citric acid cycle. If pyruvate does not enter this aerobic pathway, it is converted to lactate instead, thereby potentially causing lactic acidosis.
journals.lww.com › HomeAugust 2003 - Volume 99 - Issue 2

sympathectomy further increases muscle protein degradation of acutely diabetic rats

Muscle & Nerve

Volume 38 Issue 2, Pages 1027 - 1035

Unilateral Pulmonary Edema with Contralateral Thoracic Sympathectomy

A case is presented of pathologically proved unilateral pulmonary edema due to uremia and blood transfusion.
The lung that was spared had been denervated by a thoracic sympathectomy eight years earlier. That this
denervation may have been responsible for the unilaterailty of the pulmonary edema is suggested by experimen-
tal evidence supporting a neurogenic etiology of noncardiac pulmonary edema.
1975;68;736-739 Chest

respiratory and hemodynamic changes due to both CO2 absorption and the effects of increased intraperitoneal pressure

Carbon dioxide pneumoperitoneum has been shown to produce respiratory and hemodynamic changes due to both CO2 absorption and the effects of increased intraperitoneal pressure. We have measured the blood gas, end-tidal CO2, and hemodynamic changes produced during extraperitoneal CO2 insufflation (n=22). These have been compared with the changes occurring during CO2 pneumoperitoneum (n=11) under standardized anesthetic conditions.
Our results suggest that extraperitoneal CO2 insufflation may be safer than CO2 pneumoperitoneum in patients with preexisting cardiorespiratory disease.
http://www.springerlink.com/content/327x6038183t5321/

autonomic denervation causes salivary gland atrophy

Extended periods of autonomic denervation, liquid diet feeding (reduced reflex stimulation) or duct ligation cause salivary gland atrophy. The latter two are reversible, demonstrating that glands can regenerate provided that the autonomic innervation remains intact. The mechanisms by which nerves integrate with salivary cells during regeneration or during salivary gland development remain to be elucidated.
Autonomic Neuroscience Volume 133, Issue 1, Pages 3-18 (30 April 2007)