cell body reorganization in the spinal cord after sympathectomy

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, March 30, 2011

Sympathectomy leading to an extracranial steal phenomenon

J Igloffstein and R Laas
J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 1983 August; 46(8): 768–773.
Unilateral cerebral infarcts were produced in the rat by ligation of one common carotid artery and subsequent exposure to carbon monoxide. The incidence and extension of brain infarcts was increased in animals with additional ipsilateral cervical preganglionic sympathectomy.Sympathectomy did not affect markedly the respiration and systemic circulation. The effect of sympathectomy was attributed to a cutaneous vasodilation, leading to an extracranial steal phenomenon.

CERVICAL SYMPATHECTOMY AND CEREBROSPINAL FLUID PRESSURE: THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO BRAIN METABOLISM

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14247422


Factors Affecting Cerebral BloodFlow- Experimental Review: 
Sympathectomy, Hypothermia, CO2 Inhalation andPavarine 


The cerebral spinal fluid pressure increased significantly (86.86to 117.34) immediately after operation but returned to normalwithin 2 weeks.
Ann Surg. 1966 May;163(5):771-7.
PMID: 5930460 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]PMCID: PMC1477179



Effects of increased cerebrospinal fluid pressure on the blood flow and on the energy metabolism of the brain. An experimental study.
PMID: 4316893 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/4316893
Acta Physiol Scand Suppl. 1970;339:1-31

Saturday, March 26, 2011

after unilateral sympathectomy found that his previous and customary sensation of shivering while listening to a stirring passage of music occurred in only one side

Sweet* has reported the case of a very intelligent patient, the dean of a graduate school, who after a unilateral sympathectomy to treat his upper limb hyperhidrosis, found that his previous and customary sensation of shivering while listening to a stirring passage of music occurred in only one side and he could not be thrilled in the sympathectomized half of his body. These cases were interesting because emotions are usually experienced in a rather diffuse and bilateral fashion unless innervation has been specifically interrupted. (p.134.)
Jose M.R. Delgado, M.D.
Physical control of the mind,
Harper Torchbooks, Harper & Row Publishers, 1971

*Sweet, W.H. Participant in "Brain Stimulation in Behaving Subjects". Neurosciences Research Program Workshop. Dec. 1966

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Autonomic determinism: the modes of autonomic control, the doctrine of autonomic space, and the laws of autonomic constraint

Contemporary findings reveal that the multiple modes of autonomic control do not lie along a single continuum extending from parasympathetic to sympathetic dominance but rather distribute within a 2-dimensional space. The physiological origins and empirical documentation for the multiple modes of autonomic control are considered. Then a formal 2-dimensional conception of autonomic space is proposed, and a quantitative model for its translation into a functional output surface is derived. It is shown that this model (a) accounts for much of the error variance that has traditionally plagued psychophysiological studies, (b) subsumes psychophysiological principles such as the law of initial values, (c) gives rise to formal laws of autonomic constraint, and (d) has fundamental implications for the direction and interpretation of a wide array of psychophysiological studies.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1660159?dopt=Abstract

Selective brain cooling in hyperthermia: the mechanisms and medical implications

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9578325?dopt=Abstract

Cognitive and emotional influences in anterior cingulate cortex

Anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is a part of the brain's limbic system. Classically, this region has been related to affect, on the basis of lesion studies in humans and in animals. In the late 1980s, neuroimaging research indicated that ACC was active in many studies of cognition. The findings from EEG studies of a focal area of negativity in scalp electrodes following an error response led to the idea that ACC might be the brain's error detection and correction device. In this article, these various findings are reviewed in relation to the idea that ACC is a part of a circuit involved in a form of attention that serves to regulate both cognitive and emotional processing. Neuroimaging studies showing that separate areas of ACC are involved in cognition and emotion are discussed and related to results showing that the error negativity is influenced by affect and motivation. In addition, the development of the emotional and cognitive roles of ACC are discussed, and how the success of this regulation in controlling responses might be correlated with cingulate size. Finally, some theories are considered about how the different subdivisions of ACC might interact with other cortical structures as a part of the circuits involved in the regulation of mental and emotional activity.
Trends Cogn Sci. 2000 Jun;4(6):215-222.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10827444?dopt=Abstract