Girl, 5, has huge HAIRBALL removed from her stomach due to 'Rapunzel syndrome'

A five-year-old girl unable to eat was found to have a large hairball blocking her digestive system.

The girl came to a hospital in Adelaide, Australia, suffering from abdominal pain that had become steadily worse over a few weeks.

She also complained of an increasingly poor appetite, said doctors describing her case in BMJ Case Reports.

They discovered she had a history of trichotillomania - a condition where people pull out their own hair and trichophagia - where they eat the hair that has been pulled out.

Previously the girl said she had found hair in her faeces, and had vomited a large ball of matted hair in the past.

After examining her, doctors found a large, firm, smooth, mass in her abdomen, which was very swollen.

Scans confirmed she had a bulk of hair in her stomach, which made it look as though the organ was solid and full of soft tissue.

They also showed a large lesion in her stomach and small bowel.

She was diagnosed with Rapunzel syndrome, a rare condition in which a hairball (called a trichobezar) is found in the stomach, with its tail in the colon.

They added that the syndrome is rare, with less than 120 cases reported in the medical literature, and almost always affects young women.

Doctors explained that hair does not flow through the stomach and the bowels as their muscles contract, so it accumulates with the food in the bowel and forms and enmeshed mass.

As the hairball grows, it can cause ulcers, tear the stomach and bowel and block the digestive system.

It can also lead to pancreatitis – a serious condition where the pancreas becomes inflamed – as well as jaundice.

The girl was taken for an operation to remove the hairball.

A 125g (around the weight of an apple) hairball was removed, in an operation that took just over two hours.

After the procedure, she was able to eat again, and recovered well.

She was sent for behavioural therapy to help her stop pulling out and eating her hair, preventing the need for further surgery to remove hairballs.

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT

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