A woman was rushed to hospital after a compulsion to eat her own hair led to a giant hairball accumulating in her stomach.

Hospital surgery

Hospital surgery

According to a medical journal, the 38-year-old woman suffered from Trichotillomania - a condition where sufferers feel compelled to pull her hair out - and she lost 15 pounds over eight months.

She lost her appetite as a result of the hairball - measuring 15 x 10 centimetres - clogging her stomach, with a second four centimetre hairball in her bowel.

She was released from hospital after six days and was recommended by doctors to seek physiological therapy for her condition.