• Cheng-Chiang Chang, Shin-Tsu Chang, Jiann-Chyun Lin, Tsung-Ying Li, Shang-Lin Chiang, and Kao-Chung Tsai.
• Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Tri-Service General Hospital, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China.
• Am. J. Med. Sci. 2006 Aug 1;332(2):93-6.

BackgroundIntractable hiccups are occasionally encountered in the presence of stroke but are usually difficult to manage.MethodsWe describe two stroke patients with intractable hiccups that were refractory to pharmacological treatment but were well resolved by application to relevant acupoints with the modality linear polarized near-infrared ray equipment on PC 6 (Nei Guan), ST 36 (Zu San Li), and DU 9 (Chih Yang), which are the empirical acupoints aimed at regulating gastrointestinal mobility and function of the thoracic organ.ResultsThe first patient who received the treatment for only one time came out with a dramatic termination of intractable hiccups 3 hours later and with no recurrence thereafter. We applied the same treatment on the second patient once a day for 8 consecutive days, which led to progressive amelioration of intractable hiccups.ConclusionsThis is the first report about the complete resolution of intractable hiccups due to stroke using near-infrared irradiation to acupoints, rather than using conventional pharmacologic therapy, traditional acupuncture, or moxibustion. Consequently, these findings suggest that linear polarized near-infrared ray irradiation, with its noninvasive properties, might be an alternative treatment for intractable hiccups after stroke.

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