A 4-year-old girl found a lump of rat-shaped hair in her stomach...What kind of disease is it?
Feb 12, 2025
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Medical staff at Nepal's Tribhuvan Medical School recently published a treatment case that successfully removed a hair mass found in the stomach of a 4-year-old girl in the journal 『International Journal of Surgery Case Reports』.
According to the medical staff, a 4-year-old girl visited the emergency room for a week with symptoms such as abdominal pain and vomiting.
The girl's parents found palpable lumps in the upper abdomen after the child complained of pain"The child has recently shown abnormal behavior by pulling out his hair and eating it," he said.
As a result of the examination, a solid mass measuring 4x4 cm was observed on the child's stomach.
As a result, the medical staff performed a gastrectomy to remove the lump safely.
The removed lump was a knot of hair and threads intertwined to form a clump of hair. It looked like a mouse with a long line.
The medical staff diagnosed the child's symptoms as 'Rapunzel Syndrome' with 'Tricotilomania'.
Trichotilomania refers to the phenomenon of continuously pulling out hair like a habit.
Rapunzel syndrome is a type of impulse control disorder that becomes addicted to the act of eating hair.
The medical staff said the child needs psychiatric treatment, but has not visited the hospital since the operation. There is a concern about the recurrence of the disease" he said.
In addition, given that most of the patients with Rapunzel's syndrome are teenagers, the case of this 4-year-old girl is extremely rare.
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
