Doctors in Thiruvananthapuram remove a 1-kg hairball from a nine-year-old girl with Rapunzel syndrome

3 October 2026

A 1-kg mass of hair was removed from the stomach and small intestine of a nine-year-old girl in a rare surgery at NIMS Medicity, Neyyattinkara, near Thiruvananthapuram.
She was admitted with persistent abdominal pain and vomiting; ultrasound and CT scans showed severe intestinal obstruction and an endoscopy confirmed the hair mass.
The surgery was led by Dr Biju I G Nair, senior consultant in the Department of Paediatric Surgery; the girl recovered and was discharged.
A trichobezoar, or hairball, forms when a person repeatedly pulls out and swallows hair, which cannot be digested.
Rapunzel syndrome is the extremely rare condition in which a trichobezoar extends from the stomach into the small intestine; the hospital said fewer than 100 cases have been reported worldwide.