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Hair-Eating Woman Gets 10-Pound Hairball

by onaridge2000 | December 19, 2007 at 04:50 am

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Doctors recently took a 10-pound hairball from an 18-year-old woman after she came to them with pain and a 40-pound weight loss.

The New England Journal of Medicine said the woman had been suffering with pain in her abdomen for about five months.

Doctors found a mass there, and when they used a small camera, found that the hairball was taking up nearly her entire stomach.

source:<a href="http://www.thedenverchannel.com/health/14693537/detail.html#">Denver Channel</a>

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Jordan Yerman

at 06:39 on December 19th, 2007

Thanks for posting.I'm surprised her trichopagia didn't lead to further compliations before it reached the tel-lb-hairball stage.

However, we need to include our sources, otherwise it's the P-word... in this case, I've seen this article on NBC.com.

onaridge2000

at 07:26 on December 19th, 2007

Oh sorry, I'm pretty new at this, it was http://www.thedenverchannel.com/health/14693537/detail.html#

Jordan Yerman

at 07:46 on December 19th, 2007

Thanks, and welcome to NowPublic!

Rob Peters

at 09:52 on December 19th, 2007

I had no idea eating hair is a condition...it's called trichophagia. Here's a Wiki excerpt:

Trichophagia is
the compulsive eating of hair. Most often, long hair is masticated
while still attached to the head and then swallowed. The hair
eventually collects in the gastrointestinal tract causing symptoms such
as indigestion and stomach pain. A purgative can be given to induce the
elimination of the resulting trichobezoar.