The atomic wedgie is not imposible but is very hard to pull off.Īlthough the typical wedgie has its own long and illustrious history, few are aware of the origins of the Atomic Wedgie. Either manoever is immediately debilitating, with the latter having the additional result of raising the victim's vocal range temporarily as well as exposing victims to the ridicule of their peers as they convulse about on ground. An alternative Atomic Wedgie, known as the A Posteriori Effect, occurs when the victim's underwear is pulled from the rear with such force that the underwear is sufficiently stretched to reach over the victim's forehead. To patients in the highest-risk groups, preventive counseling can be offered that wedgies can be physically deleterious and that the outcome of exchanging them is not always benign or purely of sensation-seeking value.The Atomic Wedgie is a painful wedgie in which the victim is lifted off by the sheer force of having their underwear pulled up while wearing them. We therefore speculate that impairment from wedgies occurs more often than has been publicized.Īlthough our patient presented to a family physician, other injured patients might present to neurologists, orthopedists, pediatricians, chiropractors, acupuncturists, nurse practitioners, or emergency departments. The prevalent perception among youths of their own invincibility ( 6) also might suppress their reporting of pain or injury after an exchange of wedgies. Adolescents and college-aged individuals might take risks (including those inherent to atomic wedgies) for the sake of novel experience or to seek sensation, without prudent awareness of potentially negative outcomes beyond the entertainment of the moment ( 5).

Our patient is far older than most people who typically engage in wedgies, and he was thus more likely to report his symptoms as a medical issue.

(Of note, atomic wedgies differ from standard wedgies in that the underpants are pulled up at least to the recipient's scapulae and optimally over the head, with strong or so-called “atomic” force.) In December 2013, a man in Oklahoma confessed to police during a homicide investigation that he had maliciously given his stepfather an “atomic” wedgie the next month, coroners ruled that this wedgie had caused the stepfather's death by asphyxiation ( 4). However, as reported in one news article ( 3), a 10-year-old English boy needed surgery in 2004 to reattach his testicle to the scrotal lining after he was given a wedgie. The exchange of wedgies is anecdotally viewed as an immature act or juvenile prank, without consequences other than possible gratification and potential retribution. Accordingly, ours appears to be the first report in the medical literature about the adverse sequelae of this action. Our search of PubMed for “wedgie” and the Spanish term “calzoncillo chino” yielded no previous descriptions indeed, some languages and cultures seem to have no word or concept for the wedgie. We monitored this patient over several years for a chronic problem that we think resulted from a wedgie. He added that his wife had been so disturbed by the index event in 2009 that she had stopped giving him wedgies. In February 2016, the patient, now 56 years old, said that his wedgie-associated radicular symptoms had disappeared. The symptoms were bothersome rather than disabling, and imaging studies were not deemed necessary ( 2). We anticipated eventual symptomatic improvement and recommended conservative measures ( 1).ĭuring clinic visits throughout the next 6 years, the patient said that standing with all weight on the left leg evoked the same distinct symptoms. Examination revealed no loss of strength, function, or mobility in the affected limb. Heat therapy and analgesics had provided pain relief, but putting equal or heavier weight on his left leg rapidly reproduced the numbness and tingling, as did sitting in certain positions and lying on his left side. The symptoms had begun immediately after his 34-year-old wife had given him an unanticipated playful wedgie of moderate force as he was arising from a sofa. In September 2009, a 50-year-old man presented with a 7-day history of acute low-back pain, accompanied by numbness and tingling down his left leg and into all 5 toes.

Atomic wedgie in tighty whities