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Have ever tried to hold in a sneeze? Maybe you were somewhere you didn’t want to be loud and draw attention to yourself? Yeah, well screw that. After reading this story you, me and everyone else will just be letting our sneezes fly from this day forward.
Why? Well, a man who ruptured his throat and was hospitalized for seven days is all the reason you, me and everyone else need for why we will never try to hold in a sneeze ever again.
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According to a case study shared on Monday by the British Medical Journal…
A previously fit and well 34-year-old man presented to the emergency department with an acute onset of odynophagia and change of voice after a forceful sneeze. He described a popping sensation in his neck and some bilateral neck swelling after he tried to halt a sneeze by pinching the nose and holding his mouth closed. There was no proceeding history of recent iatrogenic procedure or cervical trauma and he denied having eaten anything sharp.
Ummm… a popping sensation in his neck? No thanks.
Turns out that because this man pinched his nose and closed his mouth to stifle the sneeze he ended up blowing a hole in his pharynx and the popping sound was from air bubbles that had gotten into the deep tissue and muscles from his neck all the way down to his rib-cage through the tear.
The patient was admitted due to risk of progression to deep neck infection or even mediastinitis. He was treated conservatively with enteral feeding via a nasogastric tube and prophylactic intravenous antibiotics. His symptoms and subcutaneous emphysema gradually resolved during the course of admission.
Needless to say…
Halting sneeze via blocking nostrils and mouth is a dangerous manoeuvre and should be avoided, as it may lead to numerous complications such as pneumomediastinum, perforation of tympanic membrane and even rupture of cerebral aneurysm.
Thanks, British Medical Journal! Yep, no more holding it in for me.