Doctors remove 650 gram hair from girl’s stomach in Kalyan city

Mumbai – A 12-year-old girl who has been pulling out and eating her own hair had a giant hairball removed by a surgeon at Starcity Multispeciality Hospital in Kalyan (East). This condition is seen in people with psychological disorder Trichophagia – a compulsive urge to eat hair. Giving more information about this case Dr. Rohit Paryani General & laparoscopic surgeon from Starcity Multispeciality Hospital in Kalyan (East) said, “Parents said she started eating hair from the age of 2 years. Initially they didn’t take it so seriously until her stomach was tightly packed with hair to the extent that she was unable to eat normal food, had pain and recurrent vomiting causing significant weight loss. Her weight is only 20kg which is less than half the normal weight for her age.”

CT scan revealed that the whole stomach was filled with tightly packed hair. She was then referred to the surgeons, who ruled out minimally invasive laparoscopic surgeries because they feared locks of hair may get stuck in the instrument used for the procedure. Two days ago we conducted open surgery and pulled out the hair which weighed about 650gm and occupied all of the space in the stomach. That explains why she is malnourished and hasn’t been having a good appetite,” added Dr. Rohit Paryani, Starcity Multispeciality Hospital, Kalyan.

Usually, people excrete a small amount of hair they have accidentally ingested. But when there is constant ingestion, the hair settles in the stomach causing trichobezoars (hair in the stomach). The condition isn’t abnormal among patients with mental illness, but doctors say it is rare. The girl’s parents were delighted when they saw her eating normal food in the hospital ward after the surgery. According to the National Organization for Rare Disorders, between 0.5 percent and 3 percent of people will experience trichotillomania at some point in their lives. Only about 10 per cent to 30 percent of people with trichotillomania also have trichophagia, Live Science previously reported. And a 2019 study published in Pancreas noted that among people with both conditions, only about 1 percent develop a mass of hair in their gastrointestinal tract.