For Ray, Coca-Cola case report.

[Guest guest]

Maybe you have seen these before. I thought you would find them interesting.

Oesophageal food impaction in achalasia treated with Coca-Cola and

nifedipine

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3029598

" She was treated successfully with nifedipine, in combination with

Coca-Cola... "

It has a description of the carbonation breaking up the food similar to

the effect I was trying to show with the carbonation photos.

There is another paper that suggest carbonation can be use to " distends

the esophagus and propel the food " In this case tartaric acid and sodium

bicarbonate were used to produce the effect but it was not in achalasia.

Notice what happened in the study listed after it. You don't want to

create a tear so that type of method needs to be used with caution. A

soda is a much less forceful way to produce pressure unless a person was

quickly drinking a full drink.

Acute esophageal food impaction treated by gas-forming agents.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6294735

Use of gas-forming agents in esophageal food impactions.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2837929

" A success rate of 65% was achieved, with one patient suffering a

mucosal tear of the esophagus. Recommendations are made to limit the use

of such gas-forming agents to impactions less than six hours old and in

patients without chest pain. "

Dislodgement of impacted oesophageal foreign bodies with carbonated

beverages.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3791858

Also of interest is:

Proteolytic enzymes for oesophageal meat impaction.

And

Effervescent agents for oesophageal food bolus impaction.

Both at:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1726675/pdf/v022p00122.pdf

The enzymes were not recommended. The acid in a cola in time would also

do some digesting of food in the esophagus but could also cause

heartburn if it sat there digesting food.

I think only the first study listed at the top of this messages dealt

specifically with achalasia so the others may not apply as well. Also,

in that first study the LES was relaxed by using nifedipine, which is

good to know if you have some on had. Otherwise, if there is room for

some chocolate or mint and you have time for it to work it may help to

relax the LES a little before the carbonation.

notan