Is the hard bump above my belly button normal? (Photo)

I've seen this circular, sometimes firm rounded area above the belly button on several occasions.  At least in my experience and with time, it vanishes.The skin around the belly button is normally pulled down to the abdominal wall in an attempt to give the belly button an umbilicated appearance, i.e. the edge of the belly button is normally below skin level.  Also, many plastic surgeons defat around the belly button a variable distance to again add to the umbilicated appearance of the belly button.  The defatted skin turns downward towards the abdominal wall, leaving fat at the edge of the skin which has piled up and being pulled downward to some extent.All that mumbo jumbo above means that during the healing process, especially during the inflammatory phase, and seeing a firm rounded area above the belly button is common and historically goes away.

Usually, a lump in this area is a seroma. However, since your surgeon ruled that out, you may want to get a scan of the area just to make sure that nothing else is going on. Best, Dr. Nazarian

Thanks for your question. In my experience this complication is almost always a fluid collection (seroma). In this part of the body it often feels like a hard lump. There can be other reasons, but they are much less likely. If your plastic surgeon is unsure an ultrasound test could be performed to determine the cause of the swelling. Best of luck!