Hair Tourniquet Syndrome: Successful Management with a Painless Technique
January 2015
in “
International Journal of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine
”
TLDR Hair removal cream effectively and painlessly treated infants with hair tourniquet syndrome.
The document describes two cases of hair tourniquet syndrome in infants, where a six-month-old boy and a 15-day-old baby boy experienced pain and swelling in a toe and a finger, respectively, due to hair or thread tightly wrapped around the appendage. Both cases were successfully treated using a hair removal cream, a non-invasive and painless alternative to traditional methods like incision or blunt probe cutting. The cream was left on for 10 minutes, which allowed the hair tourniquet to be released and symptoms to improve. The document suggests considering hair tourniquet syndrome in infants with swollen appendages and recommends depilatory agents as an effective treatment, while cautioning against their use in cases of allergic reactions or broken skin.