New Delhi, August 29. In a rare incident, doctors in Bengaluru removed a huge hairball – the size of a cricket ball – from the stomach of an 8-year-old girl, the hospital said on Wednesday.

The girl, Aditi (name changed), suffered from a rare case of trichophagia – the compulsive habit of eating hair, also known as Rapunzel syndrome.

Her parents were baffled by her repeated loss of appetite and frequent vomiting over the past two years. They took her to many doctors, including pediatricians, general practitioners and ENT specialists, in the hope of figuring out the problem and finding a cure for her condition.

They diagnosed Aditi with gastritis and prescribed her appropriate tablets.

However, doctors at Aster’s Children and Women Hospital in Bengaluru found that she was suffering from a trichobezoar, which is the mass of hair that had accumulated in her gastrointestinal tract.

“Trichobezoar is an extremely rare condition and particularly rare in a child as young as Aditi. It is often associated with trichophagia, a mental disorder in which sufferers eat hair. Although it is common in adolescent girls, the finding in a much younger child highlights the uniqueness of this case,” Dr Manjiri Somashekhar, senior and principal consultant, paediatric surgery, told IANS.

Aditi had to undergo open gastric surgery, also called laparotomy, because the hairball was very large and sticky and the situation was too complicated for endoscopy.

This method, which took a total of two and a half hours, proved successful because it prevented fluid from leaking into the abdominal cavity, the doctor said.

If her condition had not been diagnosed, it could have led to severe malnutrition, anemia and significant stomach bleeding.

After the surgery, she was put on a special diet and continues to receive counseling and regular monitoring, the doctor said.

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