A doctor from the Taipei Tri-Services General Hospital reported yesterday a rare case of a trichobezoar -- a concretion of hair in the stomach or intestines sometimes found in humans and animals practicing trichophagia, or eating their hair.
"The patient, a 5-year-old girl, had suffered from trichotillomania, literally a hair-pulling frenzy. Her trichobezoar resulted from her eating the hair," pediatric surgeon Chen Ke-chi (陳克琦) said at a press conference.
Chen said the girl suffered from constipation, vomiting, malnutrition and lethargy when admitted to hospital.
"The girl's weight had dropped to 12 kilograms," Chen said.
"Usually trichotillomaniacs show absence of scalp hair, but the girl did not have this sign. So the possibility that she might be suffering from a trichobezoar did not occur to me at first," Chen said.
"I came to consider the possibility of a trichobezoar only after her mother told me she had the habit of pulling and eating her own hair," he added.
The patient's mother said the girl developed the habit six months ago.
A survey recently conducted by Louisiana State University found that 0.6 percent of the US population suffers from trichotillomania, a psychiatric condition in which patients pull their hair out. Ninety percent of these patients are girls but not all eat their own hair and not all of those who do go on to develop a trichobezoar, which can develop as hair accumulates in the digestive system.
Ninety percent of patients suffering intestinal obstruction caused by trichobezoar die because the accumulation of hair is removed too late, Chen said.
The doctor said he performed an abdominal examination on the girl in early October because her condition had caused intestinal blockage.
"The trichobezoar I extracted from the girl's small intestine was 20cm long and 5cm wide. It was like the shape of a tadpole," the doctor said.
The girl was discharged from the hospital a week later and recovered quickly, Chen said.
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