"A lack of high quality randomized trial evidence on ETS means that it is difficult to make a judgment on the safety and effectiveness of this technique. There is potentially a number of safety issues associated with this procedure."
(ASERNIP-s Report No. 71, August 2009)
"Sympathectomy is a technique about which we have limited knowledge, applied to disorders about which we have little understanding." Associate Professor Robert Boas, Faculty of Pain Medicine of the Australasian College of Anaesthetists and the Royal College of Anaesthetists
The Journal of Pain, Vol 1, No 4 (Winter), 2000: pp 258-260
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
Although, plasma catecholamine levels are normal in hyperthyroidism, the cardiovascular effects, tremulousness and sweating produced by thyroid hormones can be reduced or abolished by sympathectomy. (p. 133)
