Posted on 02/16/2021 6:16:38 AM PST by Red Badger
A teen in the UK who compulsively ate her own hair ended up developing a massive hair ball in her stomach that tore a hole through her stomach wall, according to a new report.
The oval-shaped hair ball was 19 inches (48 centimeters) long and completely filled her stomach, according to the report, published February 9 in the journal BMJ Case Reports.
The 17-year-old initially went to the hospital after she fainted twice, bruising her face and scalp during the falls.
Doctors wanted to rule out a head injury, but during an exam, they also noticed a mass in the girl's upper abdomen. The teen said she had experienced intermittent abdominal pain for the past five months, which had worsened over the two weeks prior to her hospital visit, the report said.
She also had a history of two mental health disorders: trichotillomania, or a strong urge to pull out one's hair; and the related condition trichophagia, or the compulsive eating of hair.
A computed tomography (CT) scan revealed a "grossly distended stomach" with a large mass inside, and a tear in the stomach wall, according to the study authors, from Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham in England.
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The teen was diagnosed with Rapunzel syndrome, in which a hair ball in the stomach - known medically as a trichobezoar - extends into the intestine, Live Science previously reported.
She underwent surgery, and doctors removed the hair ball, which was so large it "formed a cast of the entire stomach," the authors said.
Between 0.5 percent and 3 percent of people will experience trichotillomania at some point in their lives, according to the National Organization for Rare Disorders. Only about 10 percent to 30 percent of people with trichotillomania also have trichophagia, Live Science previously reported.
Among people with both conditions, only about 1 percent develop masses of hair in their gastrointestinal tract, according to a 2019 study published in the journal Pancreas.
Eating hair can cause serious complications, including obstruction of the intestines and even death, according to the Mayo Clinic. In 2017, a 16-year-old girl in England died from Rapunzel syndrome after a hair ball in her stomach caused a fatal infection.
In the current case, the teen was admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) after her surgery, and she received food through a feeding tube inserted into her small intestine while her stomach healed.
After evaluation by hospital psychiatrists, she had an "uneventful postoperative course," and was released from the hospital seven days after her surgery, the authors wrote. One month later, she had no signs of complications, "was progressing well with dietary advice" and was seeing a psychologist, they said.
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This article was originally published by Live Science. Read the original article here.
https://www.livescience.com/giant-hair-ball-tears-stomach-rapunzel-syndrome.html
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Thanks for the warning.~sarc. Was just finishing breakfast.
Waiter, there’s a hair in my...oh never mind.
But the real question is:
Does she/he/it/ze/xim/zer feel confident in it's chosen gender?
This is one of those threads I wish I had never clicked on......especially with breakfast sitting in front of me.
Poor kid....so young to have so many mental issues.....
That picture made my cat sick.
Self carnivorous Rapunzel is ruining the Rapunzel story.
I prescribe keeping her head shaved for several years. Even if it doesn’t cure her obsessions, it would save a lot of NHS funds on the surgeries.
We should not treat this. Instead we should make it so eating hair is considered normal and invest taxpayer $$$ for drop by clinics where hair eaters can stop by for a quick extraction.
Given how the body dysmorphia disorder is handled, this is eminently sensible.
Yes, we should ban terms like ‘hairball’ and ‘Rapunzel’ and being ‘offensive’...........................
hair pie?
On a more ominous note, my cat was looking over my shoulder when I was looking at the picture and I thought I heard him mutter something like, “Challenge accepted!”
Poor kid, her mental issues aren’t celebrated.
If you are a part of the cool kids, you get an alphabet letter (or series of letters, e.g. ADHD)
Did she go to a barber shop for take-out????
Then she could have learned to cough up hairballs.
Hairballs are tough stuff. I remember the first time I pulled up the shower drain, even though there were only a very few hairs saddle back over the top. It looked like a muskrat hanging on.
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