[Laparoscopic treatment of a large trichobezoar in the stomach with gastric perforation and abdominal wall abscess]

Abstract

Trichobezoar represents a mass of swallowed hair inside the stomach. Here we report a 17-year-old girl who presented in our department with symptoms of gastric ulcer. Ultrasound examination followed by upper endoscopy revealed a large trichobezoar in the stomach with simultaneous gastric perforation. Laparoscopy also revealed a penetration into the anterior abdominal wall accompanied by abscess at this level. We performed a laparoscopic gastrotomy with trichobezoar extraction and laparoscopic treatment of perforation and abdominal wall abscess. The postoperative evolution was normal and the patient was discharged on the fifth postoperative day. We show that laparoscopic approach may be safely used in the treatment of the large gastric complicated trichobezoar. Several laparoscopic approaches were described for the treatment of tricobezoar and its complications but as far as we know this is the first report of laparoscopic treatment of large tricobezoar and associate gastric perforation.