Large Hair Mass Removed From Stomach Of Mumbai Girl With Rare Condition

Doctors at a Mumbai hospital have removed a 100-gram hair mass from the stomach of a girl who suffers from a rare hair-eating disorder. The two-hour surgery was conducted at a pediatric hospital.

The 10-year-old girl, a resident of Dadar, has trichopagia, a rare condition in which one pulls out and eats his/her own hair. The girl was having heavy bleeding followed by stomach pain for over a year.

The parents of the girl were unaware of her condition. They brought the girl to the hospital only after she encountered intermittent abdominal pain.

"My daughter encountered intermittent abdominal pain which worsened over time. We were worried as the pain didn't stop even after giving her medication. We consulted many medicos but they failed to treat her. We were in a rude shock after knowing about the presence of hair in her stomach," said the patient's mother Amita Bansal (name changed).

Apart from stomach pain, the girl didn't have any other signs or symptoms such as vomiting, loose motions, or weight loss, she said.

The girl was taken to Bai Jerbai Wadia Hospital for Children, where a CT scan showed a mass of hair in the stomach. Some part of the mass was going into the small intestine, doctors said.

"Hair is not able to dissolve, so it remains in the digestive system then it turns into a ball or mass, which keeps on growing. This is rarely seen among children," Dr Parag Karkera, a pediatric surgeon at the hospital said.

"Not treating her at the right time could have led to complications such as intestinal obstruction or perforated intestines, meaning a hole in the wall of the stomach, and small intestine. The patient was doing well on follow-up," she added.