Cell body reorganization in the spinal cord after surgery to treat sweaty palms and blushing

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.
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

Spinal cord infarction occurring during thoraco-lumbar sympathectomy
J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 1963;26:418-421 doi:10.1136/jnnp.26.5.418

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

These gustatory phenomena were quite different from physiologic gustatory sweating

In a series of 100 bilateral upper dorsal sympathectomies performed for palmar hyperhidrosis, gustatory sweating and other gustatory phenomena were reported by 68 of 93 patients (73%), followed up for an average of 11/2 years. These gustatory phenomena were quite different from physiologic gustatory sweating: a wide range of gustatory stimuli caused a variety of phenomena in varied locations. There was a negative correlation between the incidence of these phenomena and the occurrence of Horner's syndrome after sympathectomy. Analysis of our observations, and of clinical and experimental work of others, leads to the conclusion that gustatory phenomena after upper dorsal sympathectomy are the result of preganglionic sympathetic regeneration or collateral sprouting with aberrant synapses in the superior cervical ganglion.
http://archneur.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/34/10/619