Guangzhou Daily (Reporter Zhou Weiliang Correspondent Cao Haiyan) A 7-year-old girl likes to eat hair and nails, forming huge stomach stones. Shenzhen Children's Hospital removed all stomach stones through surgery, and the girl was eventually cured and discharged. Doctor Xiao of Shenzhen Children's Hospital reminded that if children always like to eat strange things in their daily life, they should be stopped in time, disciplined strictly, and sent to a doctor in time to find out the cause and treat symptomatically.

On August 31 this year, a 7-year-old girl named Shishi (not her real name) came to Shenzhen Children's Hospital for treatment due to abdominal pain. Shishi came from her hometown in Zhejiang Province to visit her relatives in the summer vacation. Two days ago, she began to suffer from abdominal pain, and a very hard and large lump could be felt under her upper abdomen. According to Xiao Dong, a doctor from the First Ward of General Surgery Department of Children's Hospital, after asking parents, Shi Shi has liked to eat her hair and her bitten nails since she was 5 years old. Considering that the disease she suffered from was gastric stone obstruction caused by anorexia combined with CT examination, gastroscopy on September 2 confirmed that it was a huge gastric stone, but because of its huge size and hard texture, it could not be removed through gastroscope, So on the same day, the hospital operated on Shishi, cut the stomach wall under laparoscope, took out the stomach stone, and repaired the stomach wall. After the operation, Shishi recovered well and left the hospital.

Doctor Xiao said that Shishi suffered from heterotrophic disease, which is relatively rare in clinical practice. This kind of child shows that he continuously eats non nutritive and indigestible substances, such as soil, paper, hair, nails, etc. The true cause of the disease is still unclear. Clinically, it is considered to be related to infection with parasites, lack of some trace elements, mental disorder and other factors. Eating a large amount of these foreign bodies may lead to blockage of the digestive tract. The hair and nails that Shishi likes to eat are indigestible substances in the gastrointestinal tract. After mixing with food residues in the stomach, after a long time of accumulation, like snowballs, they gradually form huge stomach stones, which eventually block the gastrointestinal tract and have to be solved by surgery.

Dr. Xiao said that the hair, nails and other foreign bodies in Shishi's stomach had accumulated and wound for a long time, forming a hard lump with a diameter of about 10 cm.