Jordan: 6kg of hair removed from woman’s stomach

Dubai: A 20-year-old Jordanian woman has had more than 6kg of hair removed from her stomach by doctors, local media report.

A medical team in Al Basheer government hospital in Amman said they successfully removed a mass of hair weighing 6kg from the stomach of the young woman in a rare operation.

Director General of Al Bashir Hospital, Dr. Ali Al Abdallat, said the woman was suffering from a very rare condition called trichotillomania, which is a mental disorder that involves recurrent, irresistible urges to pull out hair from your scalp, eyebrows or other areas of your body.

Al Abdallat added the woman was admitted to the emergency department with severe pain and constipation for five days, difficulty in swallowing, in addition to a noticeable drop in weight by nearly 30kg during the past year.

The woman is said to have fallen into a state of severe psychological tension, and ate large quantities of hair. X-Ray images showed a large mass of hair in her stomach, which led to a complete closure of the digestive tract.

This led to a deterioration in her health, which necessitated immediate surgical intervention.