Although a belly button (umbilicus) is nothing more than a remnant of what we once needed and no longer need its still an important part of human beauty. A belly button can non-verbally communicate regarding both health and youth. Because of this the appearance of our belly button is important to us in our society. Over the next few segments I will add various belly button blog entries to discuss and show you what these belly button issues can be and how they can be repaired.
For this blog entry I would like to spend a few moments discussing belly button hernias (umbilical hernias). They are more common than people realize and they are often the main cause of the “dreaded” outie belly button.
An umbilical hernia is a weakness or hole in the stalk of the belly button. Since the belly button comes through the abdominal wall, the hernia is a hole that allows the fat inside the abdomen to come through and bulge into the fat that is under the skin. This is essentially what an outie belly button is. To repair the belly button hernia the patients own tissues can be used or mesh can be placed to “plug” the hole. Using the patients own tissues is essentially bringing back together the edges of the hernia and making the body whole again. Doing so also avoids the problems that may be seen with mesh use.
The video below shows what a belly button hernia looks like once it is dissected. I frequently run into and repair belly button hernias (outies) during a tummy tuck procedure.
