Indian woman,eating her own hair has massive 2lb HAIRBALL removed from her stomach

Indian woman,eating her own hair has massive 2lb HAIRBALL removed from her stomach

Mangalore Today News Network

Sep 14, 2018: This is the nauseating moment doctors removed an enormous hairball - from a woman’s stomach.

 

The 20-year-old victim suffers with a rare case of Rapunzel syndrome - a condition resulting from ingesting one’s hair - and surgeons removed the nearly 2lb ball.

The patient weighed just 66lb before undergoing surgery - the first operation to remove a hairball at V C Gandhi & M A Vora Municipal General Hospital at Rajawadi, Mumba - due to persistent vomiting and recurring stomach pain.

Surgeon Dr Bharat Kamath said: ’On examination, a hard lump was felt in the upper abdomen of the patient.

A CT scan showed a huge mass of hair, taking the shape of the stomach, extending through the duodenum into the upper small intestines.

’A psychiatric evaluation of the patent was done for trichotillomania - a disorder characterized by a long-term urge that results in the pulling out of one’s hair.’

The oval hairball was 10in long and around 4.7in wide. Dr Bharat said that following the surgery on August 31, the patient is now recovering.

He added: ’This is the first time such a case has been handled in our hospital, though there have been isolated cases elsewhere.

’Small hairballs are very common; they do not require surgery and can be removed by an endoscopic procedure.

’However, when it becomes a huge cast of mass taking the shape of the stomach, there remains little space for any equipment to go inside.

’Such patients can’t hold their food and vomit it all out which leads to anorexia; they are restless all the time, they don’t eat and that’s how their hemoglobin count drops.’