Rapunzel syndrome is an extremely rare intestinal condition. It is linked to trichotillomania, a compulsion consisting of pulling out one's hair and then swallowing it (trichophagia).
Since hair is impossible for humans to digest , it tends to remain in the digestive tract for an indeterminate time, until a hair structure is formed, causing a very dangerous obstruction to health.
The only way to remove this ball of hair is surgically.
The syndrome occurs mainly in young women, and responds to an obsessive psychological condition, followed by a compulsion, which is the ingestion of hair . This practice usually follows the same ritual: first, the hair is pulled out; usually, in a stressful situation, as an escape route or emotional relief. Then, people who suffer from this syndrome tend to enjoy stroking the hair bulb with their lips, to then moderate or chew it, and swallow it.
This pathology was described for the first time by the surgeon Vaughan ED Jr. and his collaborators in 1968. Although it is a psychopathological condition, the consequence, as we can see, is physical, and it is extremely serious, since the obstruction can cause symptoms such as malnutrition, diarrhea and extreme weight loss.
