When she retired at the age of 55, Tang found a soft lump in her belly button that appeared sometimes and disappeared when she was standing and then disappeared when she was lying down, she went to the hospital and the doctor diagnosed it as an umbilical hernia and recommended surgery, telling her that she needed to repair the defect of the umbilical hernia and remove the umbilical hole at the same time. She remembered that when she was a child, the old people said that she was a bad person without a belly button, so she thought to herself that she had become a bad person at the age of 50. The main thing was that she was afraid of surgery, and she felt that apart from the lump she could feel, there was no other discomfort and it did not affect her life, so she did not have the surgery. But in the past five years, her umbilical hernia developed faster after she turned 70, and the lump increased significantly from the size of a marble to the size of a duck’s egg, and after lying down, the lump only became smaller and could not disappear completely. Moreover, in the past six months, she often had paroxysmal abdominal pain, which could only be gradually relieved by lying in bed for two to three hours. The children look at their mother often uncomfortable, carefully asked after the Tang granny said the reason, the children immediately took her to the hospital. The doctor gave Tang a physical examination and an abdominal CT, and concluded that there was no problem with the diagnosis, that it was indeed an umbilical hernia, and that the current situation was the result of the development of an umbilical hernia. What is an umbilical hernia and why did the granny’s performance occur? An umbilical hernia is an extra-abdominal hernia that occurs at the location of the umbilical port. Umbilical hernia is the remnant of the umbilical cord and is the thinnest location of the human abdominal wall. Therefore, umbilical hernia is very common and is second only to inguinal hernia in the incidence of extra-abdominal hernia. The population with a high incidence of umbilical hernia is infants and young children and middle-aged and older women, especially those who are prolific and obese. In infants, umbilical hernia occurs mostly within the first three months of life and is characterized by a small soft lump protruding from the umbilicus when crying, which disappears after a period of quietness. Unlike inguinal hernia, there is no possibility of self-healing in adult umbilical hernia. In addition, it is common in middle-aged and elderly women, but rarely in men. In principle, all adult umbilical hernias should be treated surgically, but the rate of surgery for umbilical hernias is much lower than that for inguinal hernias, mainly because the symptoms of umbilical hernias are much milder than those of the latter, and the early stage has no effect on life and activities, so patients are not very willing to operate. At the same time, most previous surgeries required removal of the umbilical foramen, which is also contraindicated in many elderly patients. However, without surgery, the umbilical hernia can have two adverse regressions: the first is that the defect gradually increases with age and the protrusion of the abdominal cavity gradually increases. As in the case of Grandma Tang, her 20-year history has caused her mass to become the size of a duck egg, which does not disappear completely after lying down, and she has recently developed position-related abdominal pain, suggesting that in addition to more viscera protruding from the abdominal cavity because of the enlarged umbilical hernia defect, adhesions of the intestinal canal to the hernia ring and hernia sac have also occurred, resulting in abdominal pain due to difficulties in passing the intestinal contents through the umbilical hernia location. At this point, if surgery is not performed in time, it will inevitably lead to chronic incomplete intestinal obstruction, and the increase in defect and adhesions will also increase the difficulty of surgery. Secondly, acute intussusception is likely to occur. The main reason is that the umbilical ring is usually small, surrounded by the rectus abdominis muscle, and the umbilical ring is harder than the defect ring of inguinal hernia, so the incidence of intussusception in umbilical hernia is higher than that in inguinal hernia, and because of the small volume of the hernia sac, it is prone to early ischemic necrosis of the intestinal canal leading to perforation. Once the incidence of intussusception occurs, immediate emergency surgery is necessary. Therefore, for umbilical hernia in adults, we recommend early surgery if the diagnosis is clear. The new surgical methods currently used are able to preserve the umbilical hole intact, so you do not have to worry about aesthetic and psychological problems. Surgery for umbilical hernia is divided into two routes: open and laparoscopic. Open surgery: It involves making a curved incision of about 4 cm above or below the umbilicus, separating it to the location of the defect, and then placing the patch on the peritoneal surface of the abdominal cavity or inside the interlayer of the abdominal wall. Laparoscopic surgery: 2-3 holes are made in the lateral abdominal wall and then the patch is placed on the peritoneal surface of the abdominal cavity. In terms of repair effect, the degree of firmness is the same; the main difference is in terms of trauma, as open requires more separation of layers while laparoscopic umbilical hernia repair rarely requires separation, so laparoscopic surgery is less traumatic and faster to recover; also laparoscopic surgery is easier for the surgeon. The main disadvantages are: laparoscopic umbilical hernia repair requires higher material costs than open surgery, which may have some limitations for some patients with financial difficulties, and the pneumoperitoneum required for laparoscopic surgery may also increase the postoperative cardiopulmonary risk for elderly patients with poor cardiopulmonary function. Tang underwent a minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery, which separated the adhesions of the intestinal canal, repaired the defect with a patch, and preserved the umbilical hole intact. After the surgery, the abdominal pain was completely relieved because the intestinal canal no longer protruded outside the abdominal wall and the adhesions were loosened. Now when she meets some old friends, Tang often talks about her story and tells people that umbilical hernia should be treated as soon as possible.