The effect of lumbar sympathectomy on the muscle circulation was investigated in 16 dogs with experimentally proposed ischemic limb and 23 limbs of 21 patients with peripheral vascular diseases of the legs. Muscle blood flow was measured in the anterior tibial muscle by using Xe-l33 clearance technique. In the experimental situation, lumbar sympathectomy had no demonstrable effect on the rate o...

Endoscopic thoracic sympathectomy is a surgical technique most commonly used in the treatment of severe palmar hyperhidrosis in selected patients. The procedure also has limited use in the treatment axillary and craniofacial hyperhidrosis. Endoscopic thoracic sympathectomy is associated with a high rate of the development of compensatory hyperhidrosis, which may affect patient satisfaction with...

The chronic administration of high doses of guanethidine to rats produces complete destruction of the peripheral sympathetic nervous system. In a study of the effect of guanethidine-induced sympathectomy on the development of hypertension is spontaneous hypertensive rats (SHR, Okomoto strain), only a partial sympathectomy could be produced as assessed by biochemical parameters (tyrosine hydroxy...

Ventricular arrhythmias in arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia/cardiomyopathy (ARVD/C) are precipitated by an increase in sympathetic activity, typically physical exercise. As such, β blockade is the cornerstone of medical treatment. However, some patients are either intolerant or refractory to β-blockers, and many continue to have arrhythmias despite catheter ablation. This report prese...

Most surgeons still perform T2 or T2-3 sympathectomy for palmar hyperhidrosis (PH), but both of these treatments can cause severe side effects. Some recent articles advocating T4 sympathectomy have obtained satisfactory results. The aim of this study was to compare the outcomes of 3 different levels of sympathectomy. Between July 2003 and July 2006, we treated 60 patients (20 men and 40 women, ...

BACKGROUND Video-Assisted Thoracoscopic Sympathectomy (VATS) is an established minimally invasive procedure for thoracic sympathetic blockade in patients with hyperhidrosis, facial flushing and intractable angina. Various techniques using clips, diathermy and excision are used to perform sympathectomy. We present our technique of excision of the sympathetic chain with histological proof and the...

BACKGROUND This review is an update on 'Sympathectomy for neuropathic pain' originally published in Issue 2, 2003. The concept that many neuropathic pain syndromes (traditionally this definition would include complex regional pain syndromes (CRPS)) are "sympathetically maintained pains" has historically led to treatments that interrupt the sympathetic nervous system. Chemical sympathectomies us...

The distribution and density of nerves containing vasoactive intestinal polypeptide, substance P, and neuropeptide Y around the cerebral and peripheral blood vessels of stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRSP) and normotensive Wistar-Kyoto rats (WKY) were studied using an indirect immunofluorescence technique. Neonatal sympathectomy of SHRSP with anti-nerve growth factor and guaneth...