Rapunzel syndrome: A case report

Abstract

Bezoars are masses, which are commonly encountered in patients after stomach surgery or in those with psychiatric problems, formed by the accumulation of intraluminal non digestible substances that can lead to obstruction of the stomach and the small intestine. Trichobezoar is a ball of swallowed hair that collects in the stomach and fails to pass through the intestines. However, rarely there is contiguous extension of trichobezoar through the pylorus into jejunum, ileum and even up to the colon. Such a condition is called the Rapunzel syndrome. The term comes from a story written by the Grimm brothers in 1812 about Rapunzel who was a long-haired maiden.