A freak injury has compelled doctors in the United Kingdom (UK) to advised people not to hold in their sneeze, as it could lead to dire consequences, particularly a ruptured throat.
Reports from medical journal BMJ Case Reports detail of an incident which involved a 34-year-old man in the UK who tried to stifle his incoming sneeze, only to end up injuring himself. What is worse is that it could happen to anyone since the man was apparently physically fit before the incident occurred.
The man in question 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. He also claimed to have no history of throat or chronic diseases. Neither did he have surgery which could have caused the injury, and he denied having eaten anything sharp, meaning the culprit could very well be the suppressed sneeze.
Consequently, the man ended up in the emergency room of a hospital and was diagnosed with spontaneous perforation of the larynx, otherwise known as Boerhaave's syndrome, basically a hole in his throat. Other causes of this injury may be vomiting, heaving coughing, or trauma from an injury, and now it seems holding a sneeze might get added to the causes soon.
Apparently, air bubbles got trapped in the patient's chest muscles and deep tissue, hence the popping and cracking sound he heard during the process. Apart from ripping his own throat, the man also suffered laryngitis and now experiences pain whenever he swallows anything from his own saliva to food.
Thankfully, he recovered from the injury completely, though not before being confined for seven days being fed food and antibiotics through a tube and intravenous therapy (IV), which is a lot less desirable than being seen as impolite due to a sneeze. The best advice the doctors gave him was to never subdue a sneeze again. He was lucky though, as other effects of stifling a sneeze are perforated eardrums and cerebral aneurysm, both of which are harder to heal than a ruptured throat.
