Abstract
Umbilicoplasty is considered to be of secondary importance for the repair of hernia in the umbilical cord (HUC). The authors report a case of HUC subjected to primary abdominal wall closure and umbilicoplasty simultaneously. A zero-day-old male weighing 2,724 g, diagnosed as omphalocele prenatally, was extracted by cesarean section at 37 weeks 6 days gestation. The size of the abdominal wall defect was 3 cm in diameter, and the hernia sac was undamaged. He had no other anomalies. He was brought to the operating room to repair the HUC on the day of birth. Since the herniated bowel was easily reduced manually and the vital signs were stable, and we performed umbilicoplasty to complemente the abdominal wall closure. The hernia sac was excised and the peritoneum and fascia were closed longitudinally. Following the abdominal wall closure, three skin flaps (left, right, and caudal to the defect; each 1.5 cm in length) were created along the contour of the umbilical ring with the excess skin excised. The tips of each of the three skin flaps were anchored to the closed fascia, and the sides of each adjoining flap were sutured. The cranial part of the umbilicus was sutured longitudinally. He started oral feeding three days and was discharged 12 days after the operation. His umbilicus portrayed a nearly-normal appearance without other events for 1 year after operation.
Our study suggests that umblicoplasty utilizing three triangular skin flaps with primary closure of HUC is a safe and feasible technique with a cosmetically appealing outcome.
