A Rare Case Report of Persistent Hiccups as an Atypical Presentation of COVID-19

Raed Atiyat; Sindhusha Veeraballi; Neveen Al-Atiyat; Kok Hoe Chan; Jihad Slim

doi:10.7759/cureus.13625

A Rare Case Report of Persistent Hiccups as an Atypical Presentation of COVID-19

Cureus. 2021 Mar 1;13(3):e13625. doi: 10.7759/cureus.13625.

Authors

Raed Atiyat¹, Sindhusha Veeraballi¹, Neveen Al-Atiyat², Kok Hoe Chan³, Jihad Slim⁴

Affiliations

¹ Medical Education, Saint Michael's Medical Center, Newark, USA.
² Medical Education, American University of Antigua, Antigua, ATG.
³ Internal Medicine, Saint Michael's Medical Center, Newark, USA.
⁴ Infectious Diseases, Saint Michael's Medical Center, Newark, USA.

Abstract

Sudden, involuntary spasm of the diaphragm associated with closure of the glottis will lead to a hiccup sound. Brief episodes of hiccups are often self-limiting and may be physiologically encountered in everyday life. However, prolonged attacks of hiccups are associated with significant morbidity. Herein, we present a rare and interesting case of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) induced persistent hiccups in a 61-year-old gentleman with no signs or symptoms of gastric pathology. As the patient required less oxygen supplementation, with inflammatory markers down-trending, his hiccups improved. The timeline of the symptom presentation and his response to treatment highly suggested that his hiccups were associated with COVID-19 infection. To the best of our knowledge, there are only two cases of persistent hiccups secondary to COVID-19 that have been reported thus far. Our case will add to the existing literature and highlight the potential association of COVID-19 with hiccups.

Keywords: covid-19; hiccups; sars-cov-2; spasm of diaphragm.

Publication types

Case Reports