Doctors Remove Massive Meter-Long Hairball From 9-Year-Old Girl After Years of Undetected Hair Eating
AOL.com••health
Key Points:
- A nine-year-old girl in Vietnam was hospitalized with a complete intestinal blockage caused by a massive hairball resulting from years of undetected hair eating linked to trichophagia.
- Doctors at Franco-Vietnamese Hospital identified the hairball, nearly one meter long, tightly coiled from her stomach into the small intestine, after symptoms of severe abdominal pain, vomiting, and weight loss.
- The child underwent a complex three-hour laparoscopic surgery combined with gastrointestinal endoscopy to successfully remove the obstruction and was discharged five days later with significant recovery.
- Trichophagia, a mental illness involving hair pulling and eating, can lead to life-threatening intestinal blockages if untreated, and is often associated with mild psychological disorders or stress-related behaviors
