Mumbai: Doctors remove 100gm hairball from minor girl's stomach

In an unusual surgery, a 10-year old girl hailing from Mumbai’s Dadar who had the habit of eating her hair got removed a hairball weighing 100 gms after a two-hour-long surgical procedure.

The girl, Kiara Bansal, who was suffering from a bizarre disorder called trichophagia compulsive eating of hair, linked to trichotillomania (hair-pulling)  was brought to the Bai Jerbai Wadia Hospital for Children in Parel, suffering from intense pain.

My daughter had intermittent abdominal pain which worsened over time. We were worried as the pain didn’t stop even after giving her medication. We consulted many doctors but they failed to treat her. We were in for a rude shock when we learnt about the presence of hair in our daughter’s stomach, said the girl’s mother.

Paediatric surgeon Parag Karkera conducted a clinical examination and felt what was a lump in the girl's abdomen.We conducted a CT-Scan which showed a trichobezoar or a mass of hair in the stomach and some part of the mass was going into the duodenum, the first part of the small intestine, said Karkera.