Grey's Anatomy Episode: Hiccups/Gastroplication/Acupuncture

This is my (medical student's) response to the Grey's Anatomy Episode, "The Other Side of Life."

I wanted to find out what procedure Susan Grey had and what exactly happened.

Short medical summary:
Susan Grey had the hiccups! She first was given chlorpromazine, which is normally an anti-psychotic drug, but sometimes works to relieve hiccups.

Hiccups are a sign of some underlying problem and with Susan, her issue was one of acid-reflux -- when acid goes from the stomach up to the esophagus (which is the tube that connects the mouth to the stomach).

Miranda decides to do a more drastic intervention called an endoscopic gastroplication
-- which in real life has a high long-term fail rate! (go figure).

In the episode, the endoscopy leads to more complications -- a bacterial infection of Susan's heart valves called bacterial endocarditis. This infection became uncontrolled and evolved into probably what was sepsis, which completely overwhelmed Susan's ability to recover from the infection.

For more information on "sepsis":

http://www.clevelandclinic.org/health/health-info/docs/3800/3887.asp?index=12361

I thought I would throw out the idea of "hiccups" and "acupuncture" for your consideration, as it is something that seems to work in case reports. Several groups have reported anecdotal cases of success using acupuncture to relieve hiccup symptoms.

Case reports are less rigorous forms of research, based on observation. Doctors normally don't make much of case reports. But given how acupuncture is usually very safe (if the acupuncturist is a certified one in the U.S.), I thought it would be interesting to consider it as a possible option and as an area of further research.

P.S. I wanted to point out something important: I'm just a medical student, so my posts are hopefully conversation starters, but only conversation starters — not medical advice. If my posts intrigue you, please read more about the topic and discuss about it with your doctor. I'd be happy to send you the information in the journal articles I talk about. Also, the opinions expressed in this post are not necessarily those of Harvard Medical School, its affiliated institutions, or Harvard University. Best wishes!

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• usmedstudent
• grey's
• anatomy
• surgery
• acupuncture
• hiccups
• medicine
• medical
• student

[bboytao]

Good look on the acupuncture. I'm currently in school for my masters in Acupuncture. I have my bachelors in biology and instead of going to Western Medical school first I went Eastern. Acupunctrue can treat the underlying cause of problems not just the symptom of the pain or hiccup. Check out a guy by the name of Jeffrey Yuen. He is a chinese doctor in NYC who teaches acupuncture and heals "incurable" diseases

[usmedstudent]

thanks for this information!

[Urgelt]

I agree, accupuncture is *very* low risk, so there's nothing much to lose from trying it.

Great job of clearly explaining the sequence of events that led to Ms. Grey's unfortunate death, and a fine example of how to use the internet to fact-check.

[usmedstudent]

Thanks a lot!

[xRobiLiciousx]

Thanks for that, I found it vastly interesting and added it to favourites ^^

Your vids are always so MIND BLOWING lol crazy stuff!

[usmedstudent]

I really appreciate that!

[hoochis]

sorry, more of a scrubs fan!

[ZoeyMacaroni]

Right above the eyebrows with two fingers (index and middle)press both at same time until it stops. It relaxes the vagel? thing. Saw it on untold stories of the ER.

[Buddhababe42]

Well I'm hicupping right now and have a acupunture appointment tomorrow. They have been persistant on and off for almost 48 hours. I've had great results from acupuntutre before so I will keep you posted tomorrow. The acupunturist told me she can help me with this so I'm releived. I can tell you right now this is more than likely acid reflux related.

[akeribna]

anyone else spend to much time looking through these comments trying to find a place to watch grey's anatomy, was i found a good one while looking through some yahoo answer questions the site is blackboxshows. com/greys_anatomy

[robertlowryjr]

rank101 - Well I have been trained by Doctors from China and they have seperate Universitys for Eastern and Western medicine, even though they are both sometimes practiced by SOME of the same people. To get a Doctorate in TCM you need to go 8 years to a TCM school, the only classes you would get out of would be the western med classes. I can give you the emails to 15 Doctors from China that I am friends with if you want.

[fartpopartist]

[part 1]

why do doctors make things so complicated and expensive?

hiccups are the body's natural way of involuntarily shaking the stomach to make small bubbles merge together into a burpable size. in the presence of mucous, these small bubbles will not merge together so they remain trapped along the lining of the stomach thus perpetuating hiccups. the most common cause of this stomach mucous is eating too much spicy foods too frequently.

[fartpopartist]

[part 2]

so based on my own personal observations and my own personal discovery, the cure for prolonged hiccups is simply one dose of 12 hr mucinex which is what cured my case which lasted for 3 days and nights until experimenting with mucinex.

rare cases include but are not limited to a brain tumor or an allergic reaction.

[rank101]

Hmm...not sure about that. In China, many physicians are trained in both biomed and TCM. The goal that MaoTzeTung set forth was to fuse the best practices (at that time) in Biomed with the best practices of TCM.

[robertlowryjr]

Traditional Chinese Medicine is very good at treating digestive disorders. The key with all diseases (east and west) is early treatment. The longer you wait, the more it makes functional problems into organic, anatomical problems, and the harder it is to treat with TCM or western ways. Go to a LAc and get a full TCW workup as an MD or DC is not taught internal medicine, mainly external pain medicine. A Licensed acupuncturist has passed national board exams that could not be passed by an MD.

[robertlowryjr]

Actually they are not LAcs they are board certified acupuncturists. Learning western medicine does not help with learning Traditional Chinese Medicine, and vice versa, anyone trained in both will tell you this if they are honest. I know a girl studying acupuncture and while she does good with the western medical classes (over 1/4th of her Masters degree in Acupuncture), she struggles with Chinese Medical theory. BTW she was a pre med student and has a Bachelors from an exclusive private school.