A bunch of hair weighing 3 kg was removed from the stomach of an 8 year old girl in Bengaluru. She was suffering from a rare disease called ‘Trichobezoar’, which involves the habit of swallowing hair. Doctors performed successful surgery and took it out.
Bengaluru: A very shocking case has come to light in Bengaluru, where 3 kg of hair was found in the stomach of an 8 year old girl. Even the doctors were surprised to see this. Doctors at Natus Women and Children’s Hospital in Nayandahalli, Bengaluru, have performed a successful surgery and removed a 3 kg hair strand that was braided like a ponytail. This girl was suffering from a very rare disease called ‘Trichobezoar’, which involves the habit of swallowing hair. It is believed that she was swallowing hair for the last 4-5 years.
For so many years the parents did not have the slightest doubt about this. Recently, when the girl started losing weight, experienced severe stomach pain, vomiting and felt something like a lump on the stomach, they brought her to Natus Hospital. There the doctors examined him and got a CT-scan done due to the presence of a lump in the stomach. The scan report revealed the presence of a tuft of hair. After this the hair was removed through surgery. Children’s critical care specialist Dr. H.S. Under the leadership of Surendra, a team of many doctors including Dr. Pradeep, Dr. Hema, Dr. Deepti, Dr. Keshav Murthy and Dr. Manjunath performed this successful surgery.
35 cm long braid in the stomach!
Giving information about this, Dr. H.S. Surendra told, “About 3 kg of hair had entangled around each other and formed a braid about 35 cm long. This bundle of hair extended from the stomach to the small intestine. We first tried to remove it through biopsy, but the hair was breaking. Therefore, surgery had to be done to remove it completely.”
What is ‘Trichobezoar’?
Trichobezoar means hair swallowing disease. Some people, especially women, have the habit of plucking out their hair and swallowing it. This is a mental condition called trichotillomania (hair pulling) and trichophagia (hair eating), which later becomes an addiction.