Teen girl undergoes surgery to get hairball removed as she ate her own hair (Representational Image)

A 19-year-old girl underwent a surgery for the removal of a huge hairball from her stomach on Wednesday at the Mahavira Civil Hospital in Ludhiana city of Punjab.

The hairball that was removed from the teenage girl's stomach was 22 cm by 8 cm in size. She suffers from a rare psychiatric disorder due to which she eats her own hair.

Dr Milan Verma, one of the surgeons, who performed the trichobezoar surgery on the girl told ANI that apart from hair she also ate mud, chalk and sand due to psychological disorder.

The doctor said that the operation was challenging as the girl was suffering from ulcers, was underweight and malnourished.

Dr Varun Saggar, who was also a part of the surgical team, said that the girl suffered trichophagia, a compulsive eating disorder of hair. Along with this she also had trichotillomania, which means pulling out one's own hair.

Dr Saggar also added that this kind of syndrome occurs 90 per cent of the time in young women.

The teenage girl is now recovering from her surgery, but it is still unclear whether she will have psychiatric support.