A six-year-old girl has had a metre-long hairball removed from her stomach by doctors in India.
The child, whose identity is unknown, suffered from Rapunzel syndrome – where hairs that have been eaten become tangled in the stomach.
Doctors in New Delhi treated the girl, who complained of a bloated stomach and excruciating pain before they found the 2.1kg (4lbs 10oz) mass.
They removed the revolting clump of hair, which had folded up inside her intestines and had a tail. It measured 126cm in length, in total.
Doctors in New Delhi treated the girl, who complained of a bloated stomach and excruciating pain before they found the 2.1kg (4lbs 10oz) mass
The enormous length of the hairball astounded medics, who published the tale of the girl in the reknowned BMJ Case Reports.
Doctors at Safdarjung Hospital, who treated the girl and then removed the hairball, jokingly titled the case ‘A tail too long to tell!’.
Figures suggest the average six-year-old girl is 105cm tall (3ft 5in) – meaning the tail was longer than most girls her age.
Doctors wrote in the journal: ‘Trichobezoar leading to Rapunzel syndrome (RS) is an extremely rare entity with about 90 cases reported in literature.’
Its name is derived from the fairy tale ‘Rapunzel’, where the princess let her long, golden hair down from a tower to facilitate a tryst with her lover.
The doctors added that the hairball is only due to RS ‘when the tail of hair extends beyond the stomach into the small intestine’.
It is predominantly found in emotionally disturbed or mentally retarded youngsters, according to medical literature.
The girl, who reportedly had no mental illness, presented to hospital with stomach pain and bouts of vomiting that had lasted four days.
Hospital staff noted how her abdomen was swollen and conducted tests as they feared she had an obstruction in her bowel.
They discovered her symptoms were being caused by a trichobezoar, which can be deadly as it can lead to infections that trigger sepsis.
The main hair ball measured roughly 11cm x 16cm – but its tail stretched a further 110cm and passed through to her small intestine.
Surgeons, led by Dr Vikram Khanna, quizzed her parents about how their daughter may have ended up with a hairball so large.
They admitted that their daughter had, for years, often played with her hair and pulled them out before putting them in her mouth.
However, they claimed she had no history of any mental illness. The girl received a psychiatric evaluation and was discharged after week.