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, October 4, 2011

The response to injury in the perihperal nervous system

Persisting neurones switch to a ‘survivor’ phenotype and the expression of hundreds of genes8,9 is changed to compensate for the loss or diminution of target-derived neurotrophic factors,10 and in order to regrow their axons across the site of the injury and back into the periphery. Proximal changes, such as synaptic reorganisation in the cortex1113 and spinal cord, occur upstream of axotomised first-order motor and sensory neurones, and may influence the functional outcome months or even years later.1416 Distal to the injury, a series of molecular and cellular events, some simultaneous, others consecutive, and collectively called Wallerian degeneration, is triggered throughout the distal nerve stump and within a small reactive zone at the tip of the proximal stump (Fig. 2Go).1719

http://web.jbjs.org.uk/cgi/content/full/87-B/10/1309