Chennai

Trigger warning: Some readers may find the details of this report disturbing. Discretion is advised

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In a rare instance, surgeons in Puducherry, southern India, have removed a ball of human hair from a teenage girl's stomach. The surgically removed ball of hair was 35 cm in length and 1.5 kg in weight. 

The 17-year-old girl was suffering from 'Trichotillomania', a mental health condition where an individual compulsively pulls out their hair. In this particular case, the 12th-grade student had also been ingesting the hair, which is an extreme condition known as 'Trichophagia'. When a patient suffers from both these conditions, it often has severe negative effects on mental health and well-being.

The patient is recovering and healthy, after undergoing surgery. 

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In recent weeks, the high school student had been experiencing severe abdominal pain, nausea, and vomiting, which led the family to seek medical help.

The initial diagnosis revealed a large mass within the stomach. Later, it was identified to be an extensive hairball or trichobezoar, which is a serious gastrointestinal obstruction caused by the ingestion of hair. 

According to the lead surgeon Dr K Sasikumar, a Surgical Gastroenterologist at GEM Hospital, the teenage girl had been ingesting her hair for more than a year, without her own knowledge.

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"In such cases, they pluck and ingest hair, as a means of reducing their stress or alleviating some mental pressure. The ingested hair had occupied 90 per cent of the stomach's volume and started to cause immense pain and discomfort, which is what led to the identification of the condition. If small quantities of hair are ingested, it might not be so easy to know," he told WION.

The 90-minute-long surgical procedure involved removing the ball of hair from the stomach while ensuring that the surrounding tissues don't get affected. 

Long hair has a smooth surface that’s often hard for the stomach to break down and digest. Hair also doesn’t move well through the human digestive tract as it contracts and relaxes, a process to move foods and liquids through the digestive tract. As the hairball starts to grow in weight and size, it may start to jut out through the stomach opening and grow into the small intestine, leading to further complications. 

Dr Sasikumar cautioned that this condition is seen more often among women below the age of 30, especially adolescents. He said that parents can identify and prevent such conditions from deteriorating, if they seek medical help on spotting unusual bald spots or hair loss among teens, or observe teens having hair of differing length.

Following proper medical intervention, this condition can be treated through counselling sessions and behavioural therapy.