Bengaluru doctors remove cricket ball-sized hairball from 8-year-old’s stomach

The girl Aditi (name changed) had a rare case of trichophagia -- the compulsive habit of eating hair, also known as the Rapunzel syndrome.

New Delhi: In a rare case, doctors in Bengaluru removed a massive hairball — as large as a cricket ball — from the stomach of an 8-year-old girl, the hospital said on Thursday.

The girl Aditi (name changed) had a rare case of trichophagia — the compulsive habit of eating hair, also known as the Rapunzel syndrome.

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Her parents were baffled by her repeated bouts of poor appetite and frequent vomiting over the last two years. They took her to many doctors including paediatricians, general physicians, and ENT specialists hoping to identify the problem and a cure for her condition.

They diagnosed Aditi’s condition to be gastritis and prescribed pills accordingly.

However, doctors at Aster’s Children and Women Hospital, Bengaluru, found that she had a trichobezoar — a term that describes all the hair mass that had accumulated in her gastrointestinal tract.

“Trichobezoar is an extremely rare condition and especially very rare in a child as young as Aditi. It is often associated with trichophagia, a psychological disorder where individuals eat hair. While commonly seen in adolescent girls, finding this in a much younger child highlights the uniqueness of this case,” Dr. Manjiri Somashekhar, Lead and Senior Consultant – Paediatric Surgery told IANS

An open stomach surgery, also known as laparotomy, had to be performed on Aditi because the hairball was very large and sticky and the situation was too complicated for an endoscopy to be performed.

This method, which was done in a total of two and a half hours, proved fruitful because it prevented any leakage into the peritoneal cavity, the doctor said.

If left undiagnosed, her condition could have led to severe malnutrition, anaemia, and significant bleeding from the stomach.

Following the surgery, she was placed on a special diet and continues to receive counselling and regular monitoring, the doctor said.