Medicaltalks over 7 years ago

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Removing a giant trichobezoar (hair ball) from the stomach!  

Generally speaking, a bezoar is a tightly packed collection of undigested material that is unable to exit the stomach, most being hair-trichobezoars. The young female was refereed with a abdominal distension detecting a mass on physical examination, mild abdominal pain, and inability to eat and weight loss, on examination she was found to have a large hairball (called a trichobezar) blocking her digestive system. She was diagnosed with a rare psychiatric disturbance called trichotillomania - a condition of irresistible urges where people pull out their own hair from the scalp, eyebrows or other areas and trichophagia - where they chew and swallow their own hair.In rare cases, such as the one presented above, the hair extends through the pyloric sphincter into the small bowel causing symptoms and signs of partial or complete gastric outlet obstruction. The whole mass weighing about 2 kg was removed surgically through an upper midline incision gastrotomy to prevent further complications such as intestinal obstruction and possible perforation.