Teenager with rare disease had 300mm hair mass removed from the stomach

Condition causes the young woman to tear off her hair and swallow the hair; Know what this disease is and how it can affect younger women

A 16-year-old girl had to undergo emergency surgery after her weight began to decline dramatically as a result of a condition related to compulsive disorders.

Weight loss is a common consequence for people suffering from this type of condition, however, the fact that the Indian Aakansha Kumari lose weight is not well known: the young woman was secretly eating her own hair.

For years she could not control this behavior: she pulled the wires and swallowed them. The situation worsened in the months when the teenager's appearance changed because she was no longer feeding properly.

According to witnesses, Aakansha was getting very thin, which made her parents pay more attention to their habits. So far, those responsible for the girl said that she could not see that she was wrong.

Hair Mass

When she started having severe eating difficulties and had constant vomiting, she was referred to a hospital where the doctors did manage to discover, by means of a radiography, a large mass occupying more than 80% of her stomach.

She had to undergo surgery to remove what was blocking the organ. And it was in this procedure that the surgeons discovered what was really happening to their health. They were surprised when they pulled a huge scrap of hair from their belly.

The young woman was diagnosed with trichophagia, a condition that causes people to eat their own hair compulsively.

A team led by the gastroenterologist surgeon Abhay Kumar withdrew the hair mass in a surgery performed at a hospital in Dehradun, India.

"The ball of hair occupied 250 to 300 millimeters of space in the stomach, which caused the loss of interest in food and sickness," he told the Daily Mirror.



Teenager with rare disease had 300mm hair mass removed from the stomach

Kumar explained that the surgery was challenging because it was necessary to extract the mass at one time. "We could not do this piece by piece because it would be risky to cause hair strands to fall on other organs, which would lead to additional complications."

After the operation, the girl is recovering and is well.

Trichophagia

Trichophagy is a condition that can be a result of trichotillomania, a disease that comes down to impulses that make the person feel the need to tear off his own hair or hairs, which may be on the scalp, eyebrows or any other part of the body. body.

With trichophagia, the person in addition to removing the threads, it also swallows them, which can cause serious stomach problems.

Even with the awareness that the attitude is not right and can hurt, the person suffering from this condition can not control the situation. Some cases can be so severe that they can cause head regions to go completely out of strings.

It is a rare disease, and it affects, for the most part, women. According to the Merck Manual, it is at puberty that the condition begins to manifest itself. The causes are not yet so well defined, but genetic and environmental issues may be associated. When you notice any of these symptoms, it is indicated to seek help with psychiatrists.


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