16-year-old girl had a hairball on her stomach. There are less than 100 recorded cases of Rapunzel Syndrome worldwide.
A 16-year-old girl had been having severe stomach pains for weeks. When he finally decided to go to the Massachusetts Hospital, in the USA, after several medical examinations, no one could explain the reason of persistent discomfort.
Although nothing relieved the pain, the results were inconclusive and the young woman was discharged with medication for nausea, vomiting and peptic ulcers.
But (surprise, surprise) the symptoms persisted, prompting doctors to re-evaluate his condition.
Health professionals even considered the possibility of a bezoar — a mass formed by ingested foreign material — is truly responsible for the pain. To confirm their suspicions, they carried out a upper digestive endoscopya procedure that involves using a camera to examine the esophagus, stomach, and upper part of the small intestine. The procedure revealed the unthinkable.
A ball of hair, measuring approximately 6.35 centimeters, extended from the teenager’s stomach to her small intestine, which indicated a very rare case of Rapunzel syndrome., described in a study on November 20 in The New England Journal of Medicine.
So named in reference to the German fairy tale, Rapunzel Syndrome is an extremely rare disease: there are less than 100 cases registered worldwide.
The disease occurs when a person ingests their own hair, creating a ball of hair that becomes lodged in the stomach. Hair is indigestible and, over time, accumulates into a mass that can cause serious gastrointestinal symptoms.
In this case, doctors speculated that the 16-year-old had a nasty habit of chewing and swallowing her hair, although it has not yet been officially confirmed.
After hairball removal, normal treatment would include referral to a mental health professional to address potential underlying psychological factors such as (compulsive hair pulling) or trichophagia (eating her hair), but the teenager chose not to follow traditional treatment, informing the doctors that she intended to see a hypnotherapist.
