Doctors Remove Massive Meter-Long Hairball From 9-Year-Old Girl After Years of Undetected Hair Eating

NEED TO KNOW

• A nine-year-old in Vietnam was hospitalized with a complete intestinal blockage caused by a massive hairball
• Doctors traced the obstruction to years of undetected hair eating linked to trichophagia
• The child recovered after minimally invasive surgery and was discharged five days later

A nine-year-old girl in Vietnam is recovering after doctors at the Franco-Vietnamese Hospital (or FV Hospital) removed a massive hairball that had completely blocked her gastrointestinal tract, creating a life-threatening emergency.

According to a press release from the hospital, published on Thursday, Jan. 8, the child, identified only as H., was brought to the hospital's emergency department after several days of severe "abdominal pain, persistent vomiting, weight loss and pallor."

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Further examination from General Surgery, Gastroenterology, and Imaging specialists revealed a dense hairball nearly one meter long, tightly coiled from her stomach down into her small intestine.

“During the examination, we noticed that the child’s hair was unusually brittle and standing upright, which prompted us to take a more detailed medical history," said Dr Le Duc Tuan, General Surgery Department at FV Hospital in a statement.

"Only then did the mother reveal that the child had developed a habit of pulling out and eating her hair since the age of two or three. The family had not paid much attention to it, assuming it was harmless," he added.

As explained in the release, hair cannot be digested, which led to the years of hair pulling and eating (a mental illness called trichophagia) to accumulate and harden into a mass that developed into an intestinal obstruction, blocking H.'s stomach outlet.

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PEOPLE reached out to FV Hospital for comment and did not receive an immediate response.

To remove the hairball, H. underwent a complex three-hour laparoscopic surgery, which allowed surgeons to access the obstructed segment of the intestine. At the same time, gastrointestinal endoscopy helped identify the exact location of the hairball and assisted with its removal from the gastric side.

Following surgery, H. experienced immediate pain relief and resumed normal eating. The child was discharged from the facility five days after the procedure. In a recent follow-up, H. showed healthy weight gain and a marked improvement in both her physical condition and overall well-being.

According to Dr Tuan, trichophagia is often associated with mild psychological disorders, habits formed in early childhood or conditions linked to stress and anxiety. For this reason, a child’s behaviour of pulling out and putting hair into the mouth should not be dismissed as “normal mischief.”

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“If not detected early, this behaviour can lead to very serious consequences, even becoming life-threatening,” he emphasized. "In many cases, psychological support is also necessary to prevent recurrence."

H.'s parents were given guidance and were advised to closely observe the child, spend more time communicating with her and seek psychological consultation if the behaviour continues.

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