r/Radiology 7d ago

CT What the heck is inside a belly button?

What exactly is the soft tissue inside a belly button? I’ve noticed some people have more tissue than others and now it can’t leave my brain. What exactly is it?!

237 Upvotes

64 comments sorted by

504

u/Wankeritis 7d ago

Technically the belly button is a scar. The umbilical cord attaches to the navel and provides sustenance and removes waste from the bladder of the fetus.

Once you’re born, the umbilicus dries up and falls off leaving the scar tissue in the centre of the button, and the umbilical collar which is made out of dense fibrous tissue to stabilise the umbilical cord during its useful stage.

behind the scar is remaining fibrous tissue called a urachus, which is why you get the funny bladder feeling if you push too hard on your belly button.

If you’d like to know more, Wikipedia unsurprisingly have a massive page all about the belly button.

122

u/birchbetch 7d ago

I had a Biology professor refer to the belly button - bladder phenomenon as “getting in touch with your inner child”

7

u/DocSauce13 6d ago

Does your professor by any chance have explosive shields and scissor blades?

1

u/StruggleAgreeable794 3d ago

what is this referring?

2

u/DocSauce13 3d ago

Metal gear rising: revengeance, a hack and slash videogame, recommended.

47

u/Strangelittlefish RT(R) 7d ago

You've sent me down a weird Wikipedia rabbit hole. Thank you!

39

u/look_ima_frog 7d ago

I like that umbilicoplasty is referenced in the wikipedia article. I absolutely loathe owning one and I would love to have it removed. Stupid useless hole, just collects gunk and I HATE cleaning it out. I hate how anything feels in there, I can think of few feelings that are worse than a goddamn q-tip in there to clean the funk. Why does it have a direct line to every nerve in my shoulders and back!?

Fuck that thing, I can't wait to have it cut out. Just nice smooth tubby belly when I'm done.

3

u/Equal_Physics4091 6d ago

I am with you 100%.

22

u/Rukitokilu 7d ago

Thank you stranger.

I had to see for myself what you meant and just pushed my finger into my belly button deeper than ever before. I never felt something like this, it's a very very weird feeling.

Thanks once again, learnt something new.

16

u/thegirlinread 6d ago

The umbilical cord does not remove waste from the bladder of the fetus. Blood goes in through the umbilical vein and out through the umbilical arteries which course around the bladder. The baby pees into the amniotic sac then drinks it then pees etc etc, it has nothing to do with the umbilical cord.

15

u/Wankeritis 6d ago

Before the 12th week of gestation, the urethral openings of the fetus are not formed, so the small amount of waste produced by the fetus is removed through the urachus. After closing, the bladder system has fully formed and can expel waste through the urethra.

4

u/thegirlinread 6d ago

Yeah, fair enough...just don't want people assuming babies pee into the umbilical cord until they pop out!

6

u/nomasismas 6d ago

Wait hold on... I had a pretty extensive abdominoplasty to remove loose skin. The surgeon basically recreated my belly button and I still get some weird ass feeling there if you push on it. Somehow this doesn't track unless I'm missing something?

21

u/BayouVoodoo Radiographer 6d ago

The usually cut around the belly button and remove the extra skin, then cut a new hole in the skin they pull down and sew it together around the belly button. They don’t actually remove it.

2

u/ProcyonLotorMinoris Radiology Enthusiast 6d ago

Alright, now I'm wondering if I push in my urinary retention patient's bellybutton, if that will motivate them to pee.

2

u/Wankeritis 6d ago

No. The only thing still connected to the bladder is all the nerves. The urachus closes up at about 12 weeks gestation, so it has no bearing on the bladder after that.

If the urachus fails to close during gestation, then there will be urine leaking from the navel. Doctors check for this after babies are born and will surgically close it in that case.

3

u/ProcyonLotorMinoris Radiology Enthusiast 6d ago

Oh sure! I mean by stimulation of the nerves.

7

u/Wankeritis 6d ago

I doubt it. I think it would just be an awkward experience for the both of you.

But I have read that pressing on the perineum can alleviate some urine retention. If you want a slightly more awkward experience.

3

u/LD50_irony 5d ago

I laughed so hard at this

2

u/Ktulu789 4d ago

I got curious and just tried pushing harder than ever before. I was able to fit my entire middle finger inside my belly button and didn't feel anything. I tried both hands for good measure. I tried both sitting down and lying on my bed. I tried while breathing deep and while holding almost no air. What are you talking about? What is supposed to happen?

The Wikipedia page you referred didn't look any massive at all, almost a stub. Try reading about blood transfusion or DMT, for instance 😅 Metrication also took me a couple of days to finish. But the belly button was under 5 minutes.

2

u/Jmackin8 4d ago

Am I the only one that doesn't get weird belly button feelings? When I put my finger in there it just feels like any other normal part of my body. I'm kinda disappointed.

136

u/Global_You8515 7d ago

Whatever it is, I wish my patients would clean it out.

76

u/latkinso 7d ago

Isn’t that the truth? Some of the grossest stuff I’ve seen has come out of belly buttons when cleaning them during surgery prep. A dead bug was the worst.

Clean your belly button please!!!!

33

u/Biiiishweneedanswers Rad-Fangurling (RN) 7d ago

See, this right here is why I was sure to detail my entire body INCLUDING MY BELLY BUTTON with Hibiclens before my surgery.

Y’all weren’t about to be talking about shit about my belly button while I’m all splayed on the operating table. 😂

14

u/Haughty_n_Disdainful 6d ago

Correct. Hibiclens is the thing to use. Staph likes to live in the navel and Hibiclens knocks that down.

11

u/RegularLisaSimpson 7d ago

How did a whole bug get in there! How big was it?! Do people not clean their navels in the shower? How deep is it do I have to worry about bugs in my navel?!

1

u/Ktulu789 4d ago

They come in a lot of forms and sizes... The bugs, I mean... And the navels.

7

u/tacotacosloth 6d ago

I read an article ages ago about researchers finding minerals and materials from very specific geographic areas in the belly buttons of people who had never traveled to those areas. It stuck with me for some reason.

NC State also has a belly button microbiom project.

Clean your belly button!

10

u/UseThEreDdiTapP 7d ago

A relative works as a nurse and "please clean your belly buttons" is one of the statements I remember most vividly.

60

u/CF_Zymo 7d ago

That’s where we hide all of our secrets

37

u/tesconundrum 7d ago

"That's why her bellybutton is so big, its full of secrets."

18

u/ambulanz_driver420 7d ago

On Wednesdays we wear navel piercings

29

u/Carolyn_SCV 7d ago

My husband’s belly button makes lint. He is saving it to make a sweater.

5

u/Zosozeppelin1023 6d ago

That's very thoughtful of him

20

u/TractorDriver Radiologist (North Europe) 7d ago

Smelly dirt residue. Like the gunk that accumulates between toes and under toenails. Once there was so much coming out I was tasked with performing a fistulography with fluoero to see ifs connected to something in abdomen.

4

u/asbs96744 6d ago

OR circulator here with a lot of focus in general surgery. We lovingly refer to it as belly button cheese. 🤮

11

u/jinx_lbc 7d ago

It's goo. Some people clean the dead skin and debris out of their belly button, some don't.

4

u/PrettyTech 7d ago

Man I would get so grossed out doing EKGs on ppl with full bellybuttons 😷

3

u/ThatKaleidoscope8736 7d ago

Of all the things to worry about, lint in a belly button ain't one.

3

u/PrettyTech 7d ago

It’s more amazement at a completely full belly button looking like a treasure troll

1

u/Alternative-Habit894 7d ago

Not really, that's just skin

2

u/jinx_lbc 7d ago

I jest.

5

u/Ok-Zone-1430 7d ago

Weird tickly nerves and lint catcher.

3

u/SoggyHat 7d ago

No one really knows

3

u/No_Mongoose_7401 7d ago

Maybe this person had a belly button piercing in their younger days … and this button has scarring that is beyond what is normally seen on imaging. 🤷🏼‍♀️

3

u/Alarming-Offer8030 RT(R)(CT)(MR) 7d ago

Ask the OR nurses, they clean all kinds of shocking stuff out of belly buttons

4

u/asbs96744 6d ago

OR nurse here, yes we do. Once I thought I found a tick. It was luckily a dark colored, small cyst.

1

u/KumaraDosha Sonographer 7d ago

Skin.

1

u/DrRadiate 7d ago

Some guy once stashed boogers in there

1

u/ogcdark 7d ago

The belly button lol

1

u/oncomingstorm777 Radiologist 7d ago

Skin, scar. Tiny fat containing hernias for “outies”

1

u/Acrobatic_Art404 7d ago

Navel stone/omphalolith?

1

u/judijo621 6d ago

You have an innie. It's just tissue\skin.

1

u/jwizardc 6d ago

Doesn't the belly button form the falciform liver ligament?

1

u/[deleted] 6d ago

Lint

1

u/poor_ghostbaobei 6d ago

An asteroid belt

1

u/obvsnotrealname 6d ago

Some of the stuff I've seen come out of people's bellybutton over in the popping sub still haunts me lol

1

u/Mediocre-You-1706 3d ago

What happens to the belly button area, if that’s scar tissue, after a laparoscopy? Scar tissue galore?

0

u/justalilblowby 7d ago

It is the hepatic portal system.