A blocked sneeze can lead to various complications, some of which can be fatal.
- A sneeze can reach 50 km/h.
- It can be linked to an allergy, a cold or the presence of dust in the air.
It’s grass pollen season, and for allergy sufferers, runny noses, red eyes and sneezing are back. Some are tempted to stop sneezing, tired of doing it all the time, but that would be a bad idea. In a 2018 study, published in BMJresearchers tell the story of a patient who had a hole in the back of his throat while blocking a sneeze.
Cracklings in his rib cage
The 34-year-old tried to prevent his sneeze by pinching his nose and closing his mouth. Immediately after, he felt like a burst in his neck, which immediately swelled up. Shortly after, he felt pain when swallowing and found himself almost speechless. The 30-year-old went to the hospital where the doctors heard a kind of crackling sound, which went from his neck to his rib cage. For them, it was a sign that air bubbles had entered the deep tissues and muscles of the chest: this diagnosis was confirmed by a CT scan. The man suffers from a tear in the back of his throat.
Potentially serious symptoms
Hospitalized for seven days, he was tube fed and treated with antibiotics. At the end of this week of treatment, her throat has deflated and her pain has reduced. He was able to leave the hospital, with advice from the doctors: “never again clog both nostrils while sneezing”. “Preventing sneezing by blocking the nostrils and mouth is dangerous and should be avoided“, warn the authors of this study.
“This can lead to many complications, such as pneudomediastinum, which is air trapped in the chest between the two lungs, perforation of the tympanic membrane and even rupture of a cerebral aneurysm”, they add. This can cause death. But these are not the only risks, “Holding in a sneeze can also have consequences for a patient’s orbit and cause edema of the eye, but also cause violent headaches, nosebleeds and even meningeal syndromes”says Dr. Jean-Michel Klein, vice-president of the National Union of Doctors Specialized in Otorhinolaryngology at West–France. This natural phenomenon is a reflex of our body, in reaction to the presence of dust on the nasal mucosa. Even if it is sometimes noisy or annoying, it is better not to block it!
