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What Causes One To Faint While Coughing?
I have anemia, thalassemia minor and Thrombocytopenia. I had an episode when I passed out last January. I am having cough since last 2 days and today while I was coughing I almost passed out . can you please tell me the reason or suggest me the treatment?
Fri, 5 Apr 2019
Hi,
There is a medical condition called cough syncope which means that a person passes out (loses consciousness) when they cough very forcefully or become spastic in their coughing (one cough after another without being able to stop).
What happens is that there is pressure inside the head that is built up with the cough (or series of coughs) that prevents blood from flowing through the carotid arteries into the brainstem itself.
When blood flow to the brainstem is interrupted in this way a person can temporarily lose consciousness.
In your case, you didn't quite lose consciousness because there wasn't enough pressure to completely stop all blood flow to the brainstem.
The treatment is to discover what is causing the cough and to treat that entity. Eliminate the cough...or cough spasms... and you won't nearly pass out.
Hope I have answered your query. Let me know if I can assist you further.
Regards,
Dr. Dariush Saghafi, Neurologist
There is a medical condition called cough syncope which means that a person passes out (loses consciousness) when they cough very forcefully or become spastic in their coughing (one cough after another without being able to stop).
What happens is that there is pressure inside the head that is built up with the cough (or series of coughs) that prevents blood from flowing through the carotid arteries into the brainstem itself.
When blood flow to the brainstem is interrupted in this way a person can temporarily lose consciousness.
In your case, you didn't quite lose consciousness because there wasn't enough pressure to completely stop all blood flow to the brainstem.
The treatment is to discover what is causing the cough and to treat that entity. Eliminate the cough...or cough spasms... and you won't nearly pass out.
Hope I have answered your query. Let me know if I can assist you further.
Regards,
Dr. Dariush Saghafi, Neurologist
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