While pinching your nose and clamping your mouth shut to contain a forceful sneeze may be part of the workplace etiquette, it can rupture the throat, doctors have warned.<\/p>\n
Ear, nose and throat specialists at the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust warned that trying to withhold a forceful sneeze should be avoided as it could lead to \u201cnumerous complications\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHalting sneezing via blocking (the) nostrils and mouth is a dangerous manoeuvre, and should be avoided,\u201d said researchers including Sudip Das, an ENT specialist at the hospital.<\/p>\n
In the paper detailed in the journal BMJ Case Reports, they cited the case of a 34-year-old man, who ruptured the back of his throat during this manoeuvre, leaving him barely able to speak or swallow, and in considerable pain.<\/p>\n
The young man explained to doctors that he had developed a popping sensation in his neck which immediately swelled up after he tried to contain a forceful sneeze by pinching his nose and keeping his mouth clamped shut at the same time.<\/p>\n
A little later he found it extremely painful to swallow and also lost his voice.<\/p>\n
When the doctors examined him they heard popping and crackling sounds (crepitus), which extended from his neck all the way down to his ribcage \u2014 a sure sign that air bubbles had found their way into the deep tissue and muscles of the chest, which was subsequently confirmed by a computed tomography scan.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt may lead to numerous complications, such as pseudomediastinum (air trapped in the chest between both lungs), perforation of the tympanic membrane (perforated eardrum), and even rupture of a cerebral aneurysm (ballooning blood vessel in the brain),\u201d the researchers explained.<\/p>\n
Because of the risk of serious complications, the man was admitted to hospital, where he was fed by tube and given intravenous antibiotics until the swelling and pain had subsided.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
While pinching your nose and clamping your mouth shut to contain a forceful sneeze may be part of the workplace etiquette, it can […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19058,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[239],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19057"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19059,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19057\/revisions\/19059"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}