Doctors at a local hospital in Udaipur, removed a mass of hair, which is about 30 cm long, from the intestine of a child.

Trauma, abuse and events having effects on one’s psyche can drive the habit of chewing hair, said doctors. This boy lost his mother at six month of age and father has addiction of alcohol, lead to emotional deprivation for the kid and landed him into emergency.

The boy was taken to emergency at the hospital last Wednesday, with complain of abdominal pain and vomiting. When evaluated, a hazy mass was seen in the intestine and surgery was considered, said Dr Praveen Jhanwar, consultant Paediatric surgeon.

Jhanwar said that a hairball was removed from the intestine through open surgery, which took around one and half hours. Now the boy has  recovered well and discharged from hospital.

Doctor added that trichobezoar is rare in this age group, with less than 15 cases reported in medical literature, affecting children 5 years or below. The youngest case of trichobezoar in Rajasthan was reportedly removed from a 3 year old toddler in JLN, Ajmer.

What is trichobezoar??

Some people have a habit of pulling out their own hair, a condition known as Trichotillomania and a habit of chewing and swallow the pulled hair is known as Trichophagia. As hair is indigestible, swallowed hair gets accumulated in the gastro-intestinal tract and forms a ball called Trichobezoar. As the hairball (trichobezoar) grows in size, it triggers symptoms such as abdominal pain, loss of appetite and weight. Rapunzel syndrome is a rare condition in which hairball (trichobezoar) extends from stomach to intestine.