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Huge hairball removed from teen’s stomach
The teenage girl suffered from a rare psychiatric disorder which made her to eat her own hair.
A hairball, measuring 22 cm by 8 cm in size, was removed from the stomach of a 19-year-old girl at the Mahavira civil hospital here on Wednesday.
The teenage girl suffered from a rare psychiatric disorder which made her to eat her own hair.
Dr Varun Saggar, head of the department of surgery, who was also a part of the surgical team, said the girl suffered from trichobezoar, a compulsive eating disorder of hair associated with a trichotillomania, which is pulling out one’s own hair.
The doctor said, along with hair, she also ate mud, chalk and sand because of the psychological disorder.
“She also had multiple ulcerations and severe gastric erosions problems. The surgery was challenging as the girl was also suffering from nutritional deficiency and weightlessness,” said Dr Saggar.
“The patient is currently recovering and will be discharged possibly after five days,” he added.
Doctors said the trichobezoar is very rare phenomenon and in 90% of cases, it occurs in young females.
