Two years of hiccups solved by identifying unusual cause: case report
Eosinophilic oesophagitis should be considered when investigating chronic refractory hiccups, doctors say.
The mystery of a 93-year-old man who had been hiccupping intermittently for two years, then persistently for a fortnight, was solved after doctors uncovered an unusual cause.
His ordeal finally ended with a diagnosis of eosinophilic oesophagitis (EoE), and treatment with topical budesonide twice daily.
“The patient was admitted to the hospital owing to fatigue and refractory hiccups lasting for two weeks,” the doctors, from the University of Balamand in Lebanon, wrote in the Journal of Medical Case Reports.
“He had had hiccups intermittently for more than two years and had tried several medications, including PPIs, chlorpromazine, and baclofen, with minimal relief of his symptoms.”
