Doctors in Vietnam performed a surgery on Monday to remove over 0.5 kilograms of hair from the intestines of a seven-year-old child who suffers from Rapunzel syndrome.

The family of P.T.K.N., a seven-year-old girl in Binh Son District, Quang Ngai Province took her to the Quang Ngai Hospital for Children and Women for signs of incontinence.

Her ultrasound results revealed that the child had a large tumor in the upper central location of the abdomen. 

After performing endoscopy and related examinations on the child, doctors determined that the tumor in her stomach was a large hair mass occupying most of the organ.

The patient was diagnosed with Rapunzel syndrome, an extremely rare intestinal condition in humans resulting from ingesting hair. 

Rapunzel syndrome is named after the long-haired girl Rapunzel in the eponymous fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm and is characterized by a compulsive disorder of pulling one’s own hair and ingesting it.

The syndrome is often accompanied by abdominal pain, vomiting, constipation, diarrhea, and weight loss, causing intestinal perforation and peritonitis in some cases, according to Dr. Pham Xuan Duy, deputy head of the surgery department at the Quang Ngai Hospital for Children and Women.

N.’s family did not know that the child had been eating hair until her hospitalization.

The medical team in charge of N.’s case performed a gastric bypass surgery to remove the foreign object. 

The surgery, which took more than half an hour, was a success.

N. is currently being monitored by medical staff at the Quang Ngai Hospital for Children and Women.

Following surgery, treatment for cases like N.’s requires psychological therapy and micronutrient supplementation, according to Dr. Duy.

The doctor advises parents to pay attention to their children’s behavior to early detect signs of hair ingestion for timely and effective intervention.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!