What is Rapunzel? What are the manifestations?

Rapunzel syndrome is a syndrome of hair and stone intestinal obstruction. Patients with psychosis or xenophagia prefer to chew and swallow hair and threads, causing high intestinal obstruction or pyloric obstruction. This syndrome is named after the eponymous protagonist in Grimm's fairy tale. We all know that Rapunzel, the fairy tale girl, used her beautiful hair to help the prince climb her high tower. This disease is extremely rare, as early as 1812 foreign experts Jacob and Grimm first reported a case of young girls, China has also reported.

The disease is due to hair thread-like material these long fiber material swallowed into the stomach, can not be digested by the body, but in the mechanical force of gastric peristalsis entangled into a mass, forming a hair stone, with the stomach contents to the small intestine, the tail end of the hair stone can enter the jejunum through the pylorus, because the fiber-like material entangled tighter, the hair stone is difficult to continue to move forward, and in the upper part of the stomach and jejunum gradually increased, causing high intestinal obstruction or pyloric obstruction. The capillaries often compress the mesenteric side of the small intestinal wall, causing necrosis or even perforation. Occasionally, the end of the capillaries may continue into the ileum or large intestine.

What are the signs of Rapunzel's syndrome? It presents with epigastric pain, abdominal distention, nausea and vomiting. The amount of vomiting is usually small due to the activation of the hair stone, and the vomit may contain bile, but not bile if the obstruction is in the pylorus. If the perforation is caused by necrosis of the gastrointestinal wall, there may be signs and symptoms of diffuse abdominal inflammation. how is Rapunzel's syndrome treated? Surgical treatment is required. Due to the length of the stone, it is usually difficult to remove the stone and multiple incisions are required.