Doctors were stunned to find a giant ball of hair lodged in the stomach of a four-year-old girl.
The unnamed child was admitted to hospital after suffering pain and a lump visible in her stomach for a week.
She had also been vomiting, feeling full up after eating small amounts of food, and had a history of eating her hair.
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The rare condition is called Rapunzel syndrome, which occurs where someone eats hair, causing a mass in the stomach.
Upon examination, doctors found a 4x4cm firm lump, suggesting the presence of bezoars – masses of undigested material that can become stuck in the stomach.
When these extend to the small intestine, it is officially classed as Rapunzel syndrome – as in this case.
The patient’s parents had reported she was ingesting hair for a period of two weeks prior to her hospitalisation, and the hair on her head was considerably thinner.
They said they have no family history of eating disorders, and the eating habits of the mother during pregnancy were “normal”, reports Need To Know.
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.
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