Hair tourniquet syndrome

Abstract

Hair tourniquet syndrome is a clinical phenomenon that involves hair or thread becoming so tightly wrapped around an appendage that pain, swelling and occasionally ischemia result. We report two cases of hair tourniquet syndrome that affected the digits and were treated with hair removal cream, which was an easy, effective and less invasive treatment method compared with standard managements such as incision or blunt probe cutting techniques.

Hair torniquet syndrome, an unusual presentation: A case report and review of literature

“…The swelling was initially noticed by health care workers when the child went for her routine vaccination which has not be seen previously in literature therefore we stress the need of high index of suspicion. The offending fibers may not be always visualized under direct vision occasionally the hair may cheese wire through the soft skin where it may be buried and obscured by re-epithelization of skin but the tourniquet effect still continue causing lymphatic obstruction, tissueedema leading to venous congestion and ultimately affecting arterial perfusion, this starts a vicious cycle of events where more tissues tend to continue to swell causing the tourniquet to be tighter and tighter [5,15]. Delayed diagnosis may lead to gangrene and amputation in certain cases.…”

“…Once the diagnosis is established complete removal of the offending agent is necessary. There are multiple reports by Alruwaili et al [15] where they have used a depilatory agent to remove the hairs to release the tourniquet but the efficacy of such agent is still questionable, due to their non-availability in many ER and also in severely edematous tissues the complete removal of hairs cannot be ascertained. This point was elaborated by Kerry et al [16] who suggested surgical release in such cases however there are many such cases in which complete release was not achieved in the first attempt and surgical revision was necessary.…”

Impending gangrene of fingers by constriction bands of mother’s hair mistaken as pernio by parents: A case series of 10 infants

“…Hair tourniquet syndrome is a sporadically reported condition in literature, mostly involving patients in paediatric age group.6 Almost all the cases reported have shown involvement of fingers, toes or genitalia.7-15 A significant number of the cases reported in the literature are infants 2-3 months old where it is attributed to mother's excessive hair fall due to hormonal changes after delivery. 15 Hair tourniquet syndrome involving toes and fingers can be easily missed if it presents late, because of swelling of the part and very small size of the hair. Hair as constriction band around digits gets embedded in the loose skin around fingers and often becomes invisible to naked eye.…”

Genital Hear Tourniquet Syndrome in A 5-Year Old Girl

“…Mechanical removing under sedation of the constricting hair is required as soon as possible. Depilatory creams used in finger/toe HTTS [4] have an irritant effect on genital mucous membranes. The removal of the hair/thread can be difficult because of its small diameter and the surrounding edema, especially in the youngest children or in prolonged constriction's situations.…”