2 kilos of hair came out of the stomach of a woman who applied to the hospital with a complaint of abdominal pain.

A hair mass weighing a total of 2 kilos was removed from the stomach and small intestine of a 40-year-old female patient who applied to a private hospital in Osmaniye with complaints of nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain.

A hair mass weighing a total of 2 kilos was removed from the stomach and small intestine of a 40-year-old female patient who applied to a private hospital in Osmaniye with complaints of nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain.

2 kilograms of hair grew

The female patient, who repeatedly applied to other health centers in Osmaniye with complaints of long-lasting abdominal pain and nausea, and whose complaints continued, later applied to a private health institution. Here, Internal Medicine Specialist Dr. The patient was examined by Turgay Güler and as a result of the examinations, it was determined that there was a foreign object in his stomach. The surgical intervention of the patient, who was decided to undergo surgery, was carried out by Assistant Professor of General Surgery. Dr. It was made by Seçkin Aküçük.

During the surgery, two hair masses of 12-13 centimeters in length were removed from the stomach of a 40-year-old female patient and three hair masses of 10 centimeters in length were removed from her small intestine, totaling 2 kilograms. It was reported that the patient’s health condition was good after the surgery and he would be discharged in the coming days.

A rare event

Assistant Professor said that he performed the surgery on a rare case. Dr. “Our patient, a 40-year-old woman, has previously been admitted to other centers with the complaint of constant and frequent vomiting for about a month and a half,” Seçkin Ak Küçük said. Afterwards, he/she applies to our hospital’s internal medicine clinic. Here, due to the general condition disorder, which is vomiting for a long time, of course, the body cannot get enough food, minerals and vitamins or loses what it takes, the general condition disorder occurs. We admitted our patient with general condition disorder and started the examinations with our internal medicine teacher, Mr. Turgay Güler. Meanwhile, during the examinations in which we were also involved, we discovered that he had bezoars, which are enlarged hairballs that fill almost the entire stomach and cause obstruction in the small intestine, which we call Trichobezoar, which consists of undigested food or hairballs or some medications.

Blocked small intestine

We waited a little longer for our patient’s general condition to recover, and after our patient’s general condition became suitable for surgery with the necessary support and treatment, we performed our surgery yesterday. We removed 2 bezoars of approximately 12-13 centimeters from his stomach and 2 bezoars of approximately 10-11 centimeters that completely blocked his small intestine. Our patient’s general condition is now very good, and her vomiting has of course disappeared. From now on, we are in the recovery phase. “We hope to discharge our patient in a healthy manner within a few days,” he said.

“Our patient had Trichobezoar (Rapunzel) syndrome, which we see rarely.”
Assistant Professor stated that they detected rare rapunzel syndrome in the patient. Dr. Seçkin Ak Küçük said, “Bezoars are very rare, they are not seen very often, some undigested vegetable food residues may accumulate in the stomach, we call it Phytobezoar. They may have hair eating habits, we call it Trichobezoar due to some psychological disorders. This is even referred to as Rapunzel syndrome in the literature. Rapunzel has a special tale, from the tower Inspired by the story of a princess trying to escape by growing her hair long, it is called Rapunzel Syndrome. It is mostly seen in the stomach, rarely in the small intestines.

hair eating habit

One of the features that made this patient interesting was that he had separate isolated bezoars in both the stomach and small intestine. Sometimes, much more rarely, it may occur after the medications given do not dissolve, and may even be due to the inability to digest milk in newborns or later infancy, but we see them very rarely. The most common one we see is Phytobezoar, then Trichobezoar, that is, our patient, who appeared with the habit of eating hair, also had Trichobezoar. We hope that from now on he will receive the necessary support to get rid of that habit.

“The stomach walls were inflamed”

Bezoars are often noticed late because they do not become clinical until they reach a certain size. If the patient’s relatives do not suspect anything and do not go to the doctor due to this habit, they will now have advanced obstructions, as in this patient. Sometimes they can cause bleeding. There was no bleeding in our patient, but his stomach was inflamed to a degree close to bleeding. Unfortunately, it is not possible to treat it with medication. Although attempts are made to dissolve Phytobezoar vegetable residues or lactobezoars seen in children with dissolving enzymes or acidic foods and drinks, surgery is often required. Trichobezoar has no place for drug treatment anyway. Therefore, surgery was required and we performed our surgery successfully,” he said.