Prayagraj: A tuft of hair weighing 400 grams has been removed from the stomach of a four-year-old child who was suffering from Techvigor with Rapunzel Syndrome in Uttar Pradesh's Pragyaraj city. The case is said to be the first of its kind detected in a mentally stable child, as it is usually reported in mentally unstable persons. The child is currently stable and has been discharged from the hospital.
Pediatric surgeon Dr Dhanesh Agrahari, who operated the girl, said "The girl Ahima was admitted in the hospital on September 1 with a severe stomach ache. The case reported in such a young child is also a new experience for me as it is usually reported in girls above 16 years old. After a CT scan and ultrasound, we detected a tuft of hairs and threads in her stomach with 2 feet long tail. We removed the tuft after a long and complicated operation."
Alima's mother said "She used to play with the hair lying in the house and also used to consume it. She also used to consume hairs and threads while playing outside. Because of this, she often had vomitings along with pain in her stomach after which we visited the doctor who suggested an operation."
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Rapunzel syndrome is an extremely rare intestinal condition, resulting from the ingestion of human hair (trichophagia). Trichophagia is the compulsive eating of hair associated with trichotillomania (hair pulling). In trichophagia, people with trichotillomania also ingest the hair that they pull and the threads they get it around, in extreme cases this can lead to a hairball.
Rapunzel syndrome is characterized by a compulsive disorder of pulling one's own hair and ingesting it. There are several psychiatric disorders that are associated with Rapunzel syndrome, such as trichophagia, trichotillomania, and pica. Tricophagia refers to someone who has a psychiatric disorder and eats their own hair. Trichotillomania is the compulsion to pull out your own hair, and most will start to consume it after ripping it out. Pica comes from the latin word "magpie" and involves the craving of non-food items such as cloth, wool, or hair.
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