Successful Anesthetic Management of Patient with Stiff Person Syndrome

We herein describe the successful anesthetic management of a patient with stiff person syndrome undergoing right total hip replacement under spinal anesthesia. We also describe the problems associated with general anesthesia. The advantage of using regional anesthesia in these patients is the avoidance of muscle relaxants. The use of general anesthesia carries the risk of hypotonia in stiff person syndrome postoperatively due to enhancement of gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA) action on synaptic transmission by drugs that have a gamma GABA agonistic action.