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, February 9, 2011

"It is a lie that sympatholysis may specifically cure patients

with unqulified "reflex sympathetic dystrophy". This was already stated by the father of sympathectomy, Rene Leriche, more than half a century ago.
...it is not an error, but a lie. While conceptual errors are not only forgivable, but natural to inexact medical science, lies, particularly when entrepreneurially inspired are condemnable and call for a peer intervention.

J. Neurology (1999) 246: 875-879

unavoidable side effects and unforeseeable and unacceptable complications

Most of the difficulties associated with hyperhidrosis surgery are due to unavoidable side effects and unforeseeable and unacceptable complications. Careful patient selection is important before surgery so surgeons can avoid some of these pitfalls. Patients should also be fully informed of all potential side effects and complications before surgical

treatment.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18557592