Chandan Bariya of Sankariya village of Limkheda Taluka was brought to the clinic of Samir Brahmbhat after complaining of severe abdominal pain.
Tests demonstrated that the girl was suffering from a rare disorder called Rapunzel syndrome, where an individual pulls one’s hair out and then eats it. This condition normally occurs in girls during teenage years.
“The patient came to us with pain in upper abdomen, vomiting and was unable to eat anything. We investigated her, got a CT scan and endoscopy done. The diagnosis revealed that the patient had a big ball of hair in the stomach, giving impression of hard lump,” said pediatrician Samir Brahmbhat.
The doctors decided to operate and found a massive lump of hair in the girl’s stomach.
“She had to be operated as she had not eaten anything due to the lump and had turned anaemic. She was administered two units of blood and later we removed a lump of hair weighing one kg from her stomach,” said surgeon Dr. I V Shah.
Doctors are now considering counseling the girl to avoid recurrence of this issue.
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