Ahmedabad doctors remove hairball, shoelace from 7-year-old boy's stomach

A lump of hair and a shoelace were taken out from a seven-year-old boy's stomach following an operation at the government-run civil hospital in Ahmedabad, officials said Sunday.

Subham from Ratlam in Madhya Pradesh had been suffering from stomach pain, vomiting and weight loss for the past two months, said Civil Hospital Superintendent Rakesh Joshi.

The boy first underwent surgery at a private hospital in neighbouring Madhya Pradesh, but got no relief, he said.

After being admitted to the Ahmedabad hospital, Subham was made to undergo a CT scan and endoscopy, which showed a lump of hair and a shoelace in his stomach, Dr Joshi said.

“The lump was successfully removed through a complex laparotomy performed by a team of doctors at the civil hospital. A dye test on the seventh day after the surgery confirmed that no residue was left in the stomach,” said Dr Joshi, who heads the hospital's paediatric department.

A psychiatrist counselled the boy so that he would not resort to the habit of swallowing such things in the future, the official said, adding that Subham recovered and was discharged.

Dr Joshi said the child had a trichobezoar, a rare condition in which swallowed hair forms a matted mass in the stomach.

Symptoms of this condition include abdominal pain or bloating, nausea or vomiting, lack of hunger, weight loss, and constipation, he added.