Abstract :
Background: Persistent hiccups in neurocritical care patients can lead to negative outcomes, including exhaustion, sleep deprivation, malnutrition, depression, and even death. This study aims to evaluate demographic and clinical characteristics, risk factors, and management in trauma intensive care unit patients.
Materials and Methods: This study investigates persistent hiccups in traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients admitted to the Trauma ICU at Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, from July 2020 to January 2024. The study involved monitoring and recording hiccups during patients' ICU stays. Exclusion criteria included not participating, having GERD, advanced cancer, spinal cord injury, other CNS pathologies, deranged liver and renal profile, or on drugs causing hiccups, on sedative and neuro-muscular blocking agents.
Results: The study involved 59.8% of patients aged 14 days having a higher risk of hiccups.
Conclusion: Severe TBI is linked to female gender, ventilator-associated pneumonia, and mechanical ventilation. The type of TBI and length of ICU stay are also linked to persistent hiccups. Patients with severe TBI who fell from height are less responsive to hiccup drugs. Patients with over 14 days of ICU stay have a higher risk of developing persistent hiccups.
Keyword :
Traumatic brain injury, Intensive care unit, Hiccups.