We finally know why a belly button becomes an ‘innie’

It turns out that the navel is one of the least studied parts of the human body. But one of his great mysteries may have been resolved – why most people have an innie or concave navel button. This may be due to a previously unknown structure which draws the navel inwards.

The discovery occurred when a team of researchers tried to determine the best techniques for abdominal repair and hernia surgeries, which often involve incisions in the navel, also known as umbilicus or navel.

In particular, the researchers wanted to reduce the incidence of what is known as “umbilical incisional hernia”, where muscle weakness caused by previous surgery can cause bulge in the navel when the abdominal tissue tries to push.

Satoru Muro at the Institute of Tokyo Sciences in Japan said despite the fact that everyone has one and sees it almost every day, surprisingly, the anatomy of the umbilicus is almost “completely unsuccessful”. The team carried out a detailed microscopic analysis of the region around the navel on five given human bodies, then built a 3D model of the structure.

A navel is the rest of the fetal umbilical cord, which exceeds through the abdominal wall to connect to the placenta until birth. After birth, in around 90% of people, the Cicatrice Ombilic Gantière in a Concave Divot. But Muro says that the team discovered a “fibrous structure and tunnel type” immediately under the umbilical skin which continues “transparent” in deep tissues. These deep tissues, the abdominal fascia, stabilize the abdomen and maintain our organs in place.

“The structure is made up of densely oriented collagen fibers arranged circumferential as a round, which we have called” umbilical sheath “,” he says. “This sheath seems anchor the umbilical depression with a deep fascia in all directions.” This helps maintain the characteristic inner shape of the belly pimples.

However, the team has not been able to study anyone with an “exulted”, so members say that more work will be necessary to understand how the umbilical sheath varies in different people.

“Individual differences in the development or robustness of the umbilical sheath could contribute to projection umbilici outwards,” explains Muro.

Kat Sanders at the University of Sydney in Australia says that the navel has certainly been a neglected part of human anatomy. But additional research will be necessary, because five subjects are not a large number to generalize on everyone’s navels.

“The paper shines on part of our anatomy that we have not looked at much, and obviously there are many surgical implications for the region, because it is used quite frequently in laparoscopic surgeries,” explains Sanders.

Michelle Moscova at the University of New South Wales in Australia says that this research helps us to understand what strengthens the navel on the structural structure and, possibly, how to perform a more safe lock hole surgery.

“A relatively common complication of abdominal surgeries is umbilical hernia,” explains Moscova. “It is at this time that parts of the abdominal content, such as the intestine, swell through the weak part of the abdomen. In the umbilical hernia, they swell through the navel. “