Pharyngeal stimulation for adult patients with hiccups during sedated gastroenterological endoscopy: a randomized controlled trial 

Abstract BACKGROUND: Hiccups during a sedated gastroenterological endoscopy not only disrupt the smooth progress of the procedure, but also increase the anesthesia-related risks. The hypothesis that pharyngeal stimulation could arrest hiccups during sedated gastroenterological endoscopy was investigated through a randomized placebo-controlled clinical trial. METHODS: 80patients, aged 18 to 70 (ASA I–II), scheduled for elective sedated gastroenterologicalendoscopy and experiencing hiccups persisting for more than 1 minute after endoscope insertion, were randomly allocated into 2 groups: the pharyngeal stimulation group (P group), and the observation group (O group, serving as the control group for the P Group). (1) P group: Pharyngeal stimulation was performed at T0; (2) O group: Patients were observed for 30 seconds at T0 (no treatment). Pharyngeal stimulation, does not always result in immediate cessation of hiccups and may necessitate 30 seconds for stimulation. Therefore, patients in the P group underwent simulation at T0, and the effectiveness rates of the P group and O group were compared at T1. RESULTS: At T1, hiccups were terminated in 36 patients in the P group (n = 40) (effectiveness rate: 90%) and in 8 patients in the O group (n = 40) (effective rate: 20%), with a calculated odds ratio (OR) of 24.75 (6.66,91.93). CONCLUSIONS: Pharyngeal stimulation could effectively treat hiccups during the sedated gastroenterological endoscopy. The study protocol received approval from the Institutional Review Board of The Second Hospital of Dalian Medical University (SHDMU-2021-029) and registered at clinicaltrials.gov (ChiCTR2100044907,date of registration: March 29, 2021).First patient was recruited on April 2, 2021.