Sympathectomy

 

 

Sympathectomy is a destruction of autonomic nervous tissue usually to decrease the pain of reflex sympathetic dystrophy, or to decrease excessive sweating from the palms.

 

Thoracic sympathectomy

in the chest or "thoracic" cavity (above the diaphragm) the sympathetic nerves are a series of connected ganglia that lie on the front of the spinal column (a vertical keel in the posterior chest).    

 

Lumbar sympathectomy

in the abdominal cavity (below the diaphragm) the sympathetic nerves continue to run up and down on the front of the spinal keel.

 

 

Reflex sympathetic dystrophy RSD (regional pain syndrome)

 

Sympathetic nervous system

 

figure: sympathectomy

 

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