Rapunzel Syndrome: Everything You Need to Know About The 'Hairy' Disorder

A middle-aged woman with an odd disorder sought medical care after complaints of vomiting every time she tried to eat and months of unexplained weight loss. Health care providers remained baffled until it was later found that the woman has an incredibly rare condition called, "Rapunzel syndrome".

According to Vox, the woman had noticed that her abdomen was slowly growing and that she had been feeling nauseous, often vomiting up anything she tried to eat for the past two days. She also noticed that she had been losing weight, about 15 pounds over the past eight months, and had told doctors her appetite had faded for almost a year.

Upon hearing this, doctors began to check on the woman's condition, running tests on her blood and other fluids, checking the condition of her other organs. After all the tests had been made, they couldn't determine what was really going on, and the patient's condition was quickly worsening. This led the doctors to decide to do an exploration by cutting her abdomen and find a possible explanation to what was causing her illness.

Doctors were surprised to find a ball of hair which had accumulated in her digestive tract. The findings, published in BMJ Case Reports, indicated that the hairball was about twice the size of a tennis ball and had a tail that extended into her small intestine. Doctors also found another smaller hairball this time about the size of a golf ball that had been blocking the ileum, the third part of her small intestine.

The doctors diagnosed the woman of having "Rapunzel syndrome". The condition is a complication caused by a psychiatric disorder where people compulsively swallow their own hair, called trichophagia. Trichophagia is related to a slightly more common disorder known as trichotillomania, where people have an irresistible urge to pull out their hair.

Study author Dr. Faiz Anwer, director of the Adult Blood and Marrow Transplant Program at Banner - University of Arizona Medical Center, told CBS News, "This patient suffered from trichotillomania for many months and was diagnosed very late with severe complications of Rapunzel syndrome." "Almost all cases reported in the published medical literature from all over the world regarding this disease required treatment with surgery."

Meanwhile, Anwer also added that the cause of these disorders is not very well understood, and the disorders happen on a wide variety of spectrum from mild to severe. In the case of trichotillomania, people pull enough hair to result in bald spots, or pluck off their eyebrows, while others hardly notice they have a problem. Treatments like cognitive behavioral therapy can help people control the urge to pick. With better education and earlier intervention, Anwer hopes patients who need it will get treatment and avoid some of that suffering.