18-year-old girl operated in Patna for ‘Rapunzel syndrome’

PATNA: Doctors at Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS) on Friday removed hair and jute thread weighing around 750gm from the stomach of a teenage girl. The hair and jute thread had even entered her intestine.
The 18-year-old girl from Chhapra was suffering from ‘Rapunzel syndrome’, named after fairy tale character and long-haired Rapunzel.However, those suffering from this syndrome do not possess long hair. They, instead, eat their hair.
“This is a rarest of rare psychiatric disorder and one in 100 million patients complain of this,” said IGIMS superintendent Dr Manish Mandal, who was among the doctors who performed the operation. He said though in his 25 years of medical career, he had operated on four to five people and removed hair from their stomach, this case was surprising as the girl used to chew jute bags also and swallow the thread.
This rare disorder is found in emotionally-disturbed children or mentally retarded people.
“There was a big lump of hair and a jute thread in her stomach. It had even entered her intestine and blocked her small gut. We had to carefully pull it out. Apart from the stomach, two-foot long thread of hair and jute was removed from the small intestine,” said Dr Mandal after the operation which continued for at least two hours.
He said the patient had first visited the OPD of gastrosurgery department a month back and Dr Rakesh Kumar Singh investigated her. Even while sharing her medical history with the doctor, the girl did not reveal that she used to eat hair or jute. She had complained of pain in abdomen and a hard visible swelling was also found in her abdomen. After an endoscopy and CT scan, she was diagnosed with ‘trichobezoar’.
Nalanda Medical College and Hospital psychiatrist Dr Santosh Kumar said disorder of pulling one’s hair is known as trichotillomania in medical parlance. “Some get satisfied by just pulling the hair and some eat them,” he added.
When the girl first complained of pain and vomiting, her father, who owns a tea stall, took her to a private hospital in Hajipur. The family was told she was suffering from cancer. The family then reached IGIMS with the girl. After a month of investigation and treatment, she was finally operated on Friday.
IGIMS director Dr NR Biswas has congratulated the team comprising Dr Mandal, Dr Manish, Dr Rakesh Kumar, Dr Om Prakash Bharti, Dr Sanjeev Kumar, Dr Tulika, Dr Sunny and sister Madhu for the successful operation.