According to a medical journal, a woman who is addicted to pulling out and eating her hair has a blind hairball measuring 15 centimeters from her stomach.
The 38-year-old, suffering from nausea, vomiting and extreme swelling when she arrived at a US hospital, has lost 15 kilograms in eight months after losing her appetite and becoming severely emaciated.
The woman, who has not been named, had surgery to remove a large hair follicle in her digestive tract, a small “tail” in her intestine and a second hair follicle four centimeters deeper in her intestine.
He was diagnosed with Rapunzel syndrome, a rare condition that has only been documented 88 times in the medical literature.
According to the BMJ journal, this syndrome is caused by trichotillomania, a disorder that causes sufferers to pull out their own hair and sometimes develop an insatiable urge to eat.
Named after the long-haired Rapunzel from the Brothers Grimm fairy tale, it is extremely rare, but can cause fatal effects and complications when the hair falls into the patient’s abdomen.
Common symptoms include nausea, vomiting, bowel changes, abdominal pain, and fatigue.
Complications can occur and include intestinal obstruction, intestinal perforation, intestinal bleeding, hemorrhage, dysentery, and appendicitis.
The surgeons were released from the hospital after six days to seek psychological treatment.
She was also treated for malnutrition and was advised to eat a high protein diet such as eggs and chicken breast and daily iron supplements.
