Transient locked‐in syndrome resulting from stellate ganglion block in the treatment of patients with sudden hearing loss

Stellate ganglion blockage (SGB) is a local anesthetic procedure intended to block the lower cervical and upper thoracic sympathetic chain and is one of the treatment modalities for a wide range of disorders such as sudden hearing loss, Menier's disease, stroke, sudden blindness, shoulder/hand syndrome and vascular headache. The complications of SGB are recurrent laryngeal or phrenic nerve block, pneumothorax, unconsciousness, respiratory paralysis, convulsions and sometimes severe arterial hypotension. We present a case with transient locked‐in syndrome following SGB for the management of sudden hearing loss. The risk of an intra‐arterial injection can be eliminated by rotating the needle, as is described in this report.