Girl suffers stomach perforation after swallowing hair

The patient was transferred from a hospital in the Mekong Delta’s Tien Giang Province to HCMC.

During the journey, she developed breathing difficulties and cold extremities and was admitted to the Ho Chi Minh City Children’s Hospital, said Nguyen Minh Tien, the hospital’s deputy director, on Thursday.

Three days prior to the trip, the girl had vomited 3-4 times, had occasional yellow stools, was eating poorly, and had a persistent fever.

Tien stated that the girl had a history of Tetralogy of Fallot, a congenital heart defect detected after birth, but it had not been followed up. Imaging diagnostics confirmed peritonitis due to perforation of a hollow organ, sepsis, and septic shock.

Doctors performed emergency surgery, removing the intestines from her body for examination.

They found the girl’s stomach to be severely enlarged, with a hard mass approximately 30×20 cm in size causing the perforation. The surgical team removed a large quantity of hair, straw fibers, and thread from the stomach and sutured the perforation.

After surgery, the girl has been monitored in the intensive care unit.

The fibrous mass was surgically removed from the stomach of an eight-year-old girl from Tien Giang Province. Photo courtesy of HCMC Children’s Hospital

Her mother reported that the girl often swallowed hair, fibers, straw, toothbrush bristles, and pine needles. The family had noticed this behavior multiple times and tried to prevent it, and occasionally saw the child pass these materials in her stool, so did not pay much more attention.

“A psychological assessment and counseling will be provided for the child and her family,” Tien said.

The habit of eating hair, which led to her intestinal blockage, stems from Rapunzel syndrome, named after the fairytale princess with long hair from the Grimms’ stories. Individuals with this condition have a compulsion to eat hair.

Since hair cannot be digested like food, it accumulates into a mass in the stomach or small intestine, sometimes accompanied by a long hair tail.

The cause of the syndrome is not fully understood but may be related to intellectual disabilities, psychiatric disorders, psychological trauma, extreme stress, or iron deficiency.

Doctors advise parents and caregivers to help children prevent the habit. They should closely monitor the child’s behavior to detect any abnormalities early and work with healthcare professionals to limit hair-eating behavior, as well as support the child’s mental well-being.