[A bizarre excrescence of the umbilicus in a 1-month-old child]

We report the case of an umbilical polyp, derived from omphalo-mesenteric remnants in an one-month-old female child. This rare abnormality results from a closure defect of the vitelline duct. The vitelline duct normally closes between the 5th and the 7th weeks of intra embryonic development but can lead to several pathologies in case of closure defects, giving rise to abdominal (Meckel diverticulum, vitelline cyst) or umbilical symptoms (umbilical fistula, umbilical sinus and umbilical polyp). These disorders have a 2% incidence, and may induce clinical symptoms of varied gravity ranging from clinical silence to acute abdomen. We seized the opportunity of this rare clinical observation to review the nosology of vitelline duct defects at the light of embryologic data.