A team of doctors at VBR Mudnal Hospital, led by Veerabasantreddy Mudnal, removed a clump of hair in a 45-minute surgery on a 16-year-old girl in Yadgir recently.
Addressing a press conference, Dr. Mudnal explained that the girl, who was admitted in the hospital on a complaint of abdominal pain some days ago, underwent scanning and the report revealed that there was a ball of hair in her abdomen causing her pain.
The parents of the girl were worried about their daughter’s condition and the doctors, during a discussion with the girl, found out that she had a habit of ingesting her own hair. She has been doing this for the last 13 years, without the knowledge of anyone at home, Dr. Reddy recalled.
Soon after the cause of the girl’s abdominal pain was established, a team of seven doctors, including Dr. Mudnal, conducted the surgery and removed the clump of hair from her stomach.
Stating that the habit of ingesting one’s own hair was called Rapunzel Syndrome, Dr. Mudnal said that this is a rare medical condition where hair ingested by a person gets trapped in his stomach and forms into a hairball.
Such a situation causes nausea, bloating, abdominal pain and vomiting. The other symptoms include reduced appetite, weight loss and constipation or diarrhoea. The human stomach cannot digest hair, so it [hair] accumulates and turns into a clump, he said.
The hairball that was removed from the girl weighed 300 grams. It was 50 cm in length, he said, exhibiting the hairball.
Probably, this was the first such case in Yadgir district, Dr. Mudnal said and added that the habit of ingesting hair was something like young children eating mud.
To a question, he said that the girl will be discharged soon as she is recovering.
Doctors Sangamma V.B. Reddy, Basavaraj, Abhishek Reddy Palla, Amogh, Kshitija and Siddaveerappa and their staff were on the team.