associated with trichophagia<\/a> \u2013 an equally rare compulsive disorder when a person eats hair.<\/p>\n\u201cA young female developed a giant hairball in her stomach (gastric trichobezoar) due to compulsive hair-pulling and hair eating,\u201d said the report.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrichobezoars are rare gastric foreign bodies composed of ingested hair, occurring predominantly in young females with trichotillomania and trichotillophagia.\u201d<\/p>\n
In some cases, the problem can lead to a condition known as Rapunzel syndrome. This occurs when the hairball in the stomach develops a tail that extends into the small intestine.<\/p>\n
In such a rare occurrence, the report said, complications could include obstruction, perforation and even pancreatitis.<\/p>\n
Images provided in the report include that of the large J-shaped hairy mass, with a standard 30cm ruler just beneath it, as an indication of measurement. The photo is titled: \u201cFigure 3: Trichobezoar, weighing 500g.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"The]()
The X-ray of the teenager who had to have a 500g hairball removed from her stomach. Photo \/ NZ Medical Journal<\/p>\n
Two other images are included in the report. <\/p>\n
One was an abdominal X-ray showing \u201can intragastric mass with a mottled gas pattern, consistent with a trichobezoar\u201d.<\/p>\n
The other image is taken during the operation to remove the hairball and treat the superficial gastric ulcer.<\/p>\n
One of the report writers includes the surgeon who operated on the teen, Dr Binura Lekamalage, who was involved in another shocking case last year.<\/p>\n
In a case published in the NZ Medical Journal last October, a 13-year-old boy had to have part of his intestines removed after admitting to swallowing 100 high-power magnets he bought from the popular online store Temu.<\/p>\n
Lekamalage could not be contacted for comment on this latest case.<\/p>\n
The report said that given the hairball\u2019s size and density, chemical dissolution and endoscopic extraction were unsuitable.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis condition is usually managed with surgery involving a large incision (laparotomy) rather than minimally invasive key-hole surgery, because of the risk of contaminating the abdomen.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe used a hybrid approach with key-hole surgery and small incision (mini-laparotomy) to remove the hairball, which was effective.\u201d<\/p>\n
The report said the hybrid approach had the benefits of minimally invasive surgery while also reducing the risk of contamination.<\/p>\n
A follow-up gastroscopy appointment \u2013 during which a thin, flexible camera tube is used to examine the stomach and small intestine \u2013 was carried out eight weeks after the teen\u2019s surgery.<\/p>\n
\u201cFollow-up … confirmed healing of the gastric ulcer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sign up to The Daily H<\/a>, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The giant hairball discovered in a teenage girl’s stomach weighed 500g. Photo \/ NZ Medical Journal A superficial…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":326452,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[175865,9539,1595,175868,71,175866,175867,111,43,139,69,1118,28875,4185,120518,5163,1455,102],"class_list":["post-326451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-30cmlong","tag-content","tag-disorder","tag-disturb","tag-from","tag-hairball","tag-haireating","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-remove","tag-stomach","tag-surgeons","tag-teen","tag-warning","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}