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| A thermal image showing the abnormal skin temperature differences in a corposcindosis victim. The extreme high temperature on the upper body is due to fully dilated cutaneous blood vessels, which are paralyzed and unable to constrict. | Here is a normal thermal image of the front of a man, from belly to shoulders. Notice a much more evenly distributed temperature pattern. | |||||
Corposcindosis is caused by damage to the upper thoracic region of the sympathetic nerve trunk. The most common source of this nerve damage is endoscopic thoracic sympathectomy (ETS surgery).
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Here's another ETS patient showing his split-body syndrome via medical thermal imaging. | |||
Because the sympathetic nervous system connects to so many different body structures, corposcindosis (CS) can produce a great variety of symptoms:
1. Total anhidrosis (inability to sweat) above the nipple line, severe hyperhidrosis below the nipple line. Skin in the denverved non-functioning upper-region can be 10-12 degrees F hotter than in the hyper-functioning lower region. The patient can feel as though living in "two different bodies".
2. Loss of vascular control (ability to constrict/dilate blood vessels) in denerved area.
3. Loss of cardiac response to fear, strong emotion and exercise.
4. Loss of goosebumps above the nipple line, overactive goosebumps below the nipple line.
5. Loss of sympathetic modulation of endocrine function in denerved area, possible over-stimulation of endocrine function in working region.
6. Loss of sympathetic modulation of lypolysis (breakdown of fat) in the denerved region, possible over-modulation in the working region.
7. Disturbed and/or diminished emotional response, due to the strong role played by the autonomic nervous system in human emotion. In particular, CS can significantly reduce the experience of fear, excitement, thrills and other strong emotions.
8. Disturbed thermoregulation due to upper-body anhidrosis and loss of vascular control. Warm weather malfunction is mostly due to the inability to achieve any evaporative cooling effect on the upper body. Cold weather malfunction is due to the inability of cutaneous blood vessels to contrict, and the inability of deep vessels to dilate. The upper body acts a large "heat leak", and fails to properly divert blood to the core and conserve heat energy.
9. Decreased alertness, due to the disconnect between human emotion and normal physiologic responses to those emotions which ordinarily would increase the levels on many body functions including cardiac output.
Corposcindosis is partly understood. The loss of sympathetic nerve funtion in the denerved region is easily explained. Messages from the brain cannot reach the target organs, glands and muscles because the neural pathways have been severed. However, this does not explain the consequent hyperactivity in the still-working region.
Two main theories have been put forth to explain the hyperactive sympathetic response in the innervated lower body:
1. The "Compensatory" Theory. The brain sends signals (e.g. "begin sweating"), then monitors inputs for the expected change (e.g. "skin gets cooler").The expected change fails to occur (e.g. because of no head sweating), so the brain increases the level of the signals, causing a hyperactive response in the working portion of the sympathetic nervous system (e.g. extreme lower body sweating).
2. The "Reflex" Theory. Nerve impulses from the lower body travel upwards along the sympathetic chain and encounter dead ends and scar tissue, causing a rebounding or reflexive signal to be sent back down the chain and stimulating hyperactivity.
A third factor which may influence either of the above is the fact that the hypothalamus is constantly receiving false information about the surrounding temperature (due to the abnormally hot skin temperature in the denerved upper body region).
Derivation
Coined by CS victim Alexander Baker in 2005, the word "corposcindosis" derives from the latin "corpus" (body) and "scindo" (to sever or divide) and the suffix "-osis" (a disease process).
The abbreviation "CS" is also often used in discussions about sympathectomy to mean "Compensatory Sweating". "Compensatory Sweating" is a euphemism for the excessive lower-body sweating caused by surgical sympathectomy. This phenomenon is referred to in the literature as either "Compensatory Hyperhidrosis" or "Reflex Hyperhidrosis" depending on which explanatory theory is being advanced (see theory above). However, since the exact cause of this excessive sweating is not known, we advocate use of this medically correct acronym - SILBES (Surgically Induced Lower Body Excessive Sweating).
Since Corposcindosis is a larger concept and fully includes the excessive lower-body sweating as one of its constituent parts, the concept of Corposcindosis hereby incorporates and subsumes the concept of the excessive lower-body sweating.
It is believed that this apparent confusion will actually be a clarification of the language. Often when victims speak of "CS" meaning "Compensatory Sweating", they are actually complaining about the totality of their dysfunction (e.g. the anhidrosis of the upper body in contrast to the extreme lower body sweating). It is hoped that the meaning of any reference to "CS" will be clear from context.