This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Reply to article  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Majed Odeh, MD; Arie Oliven, MD
Haifa, Israel

Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 1993;119(12):1383.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

We read with great interest the excellent article by Loft and Ward entitled "Hiccups: A Case Presentation and Etiologic Review,"¹ and we mention a simple, and usually safe physical maneuver, it is digital rectal massage, for the treatment of intractable hiccups, which has not been mentioned by the authors.

We² and others³ have recently described two patients with intractable hiccups who failed to respond to several physical maneuvers and drug therapy. Then, digital rectal massage was performed, resulting in abrupt cessation of the hiccups. Subsequently, we performed this maneuver successfully in an additional five patients with intractable hiccups before performing other potentially dangerous maneuvers, like carotid sinus massage, Valsava maneuver, and ocular compression, and also before proceeding with pharmacologic agents.

The rectum is supplied with sympathetic and parasympathetic nerves carrying both motor and sensory fibers.⁴ Sensory innervation of the rectum occurs through parasympathetic fibers that are . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?