Doctors have been left stunned after they found a giant ball of hair lodged in the stomach of a four-year-old girl. The child, who has not been named, was taken to hospital after suffering severe stomach pains for a week. As well as having a growing lump, she had also been vomiting, feeling full up after eating small amounts of food, and had a history of eating her own hair.
The girl was later found to suffer from a condition called Rapunzel syndrome, which occurs when someone develops a habit for eating hair, causing a mass in the stomach. Medics found a 4x4cm (1.57in) firm lump, suggesting the presence of bezoars, masses of undigested material that can become stuck in the stomach.
Her parents had reported she was ingesting hair for a period of two weeks before being taken to hospital, and the hair on her head was considerably thinner. But they said they have no family history of eating disorders, and the eating habits of the mother during pregnancy were “normal”.
The little girl underwent a gastronomy to cut into the stomach, revealing the huge hair ball, which was shared in a recently published medical journal. Doctors at the Institute of Medicine at Tribhuvan University in Kathmandu, Nepal described it as a “stomach-shaped mass” with a “tail”, which was safely removed from her stomach. The child was evaluated for hair-related mental disorders Trichotillomania and Trichophagia, but doctors report she was not brought back for regular psychiatry follow-up appointments.
