Plastic, Hand & Microsurgery>>Ear deformities and reconstruction

Ear deformities and reconstruction

Ears can be malformed either by birth or due to some injuries.   Plastic surgery can help in these situations to create  a normal looking ear by using the tissue from the body such as the skin, fascia or cartilage. This helps in the patients facing the society confidently.

Complete loss of ear:
This patient had sustained loss of ear due to a burns injury with scarring of the surrounding tissue. A block of costal cartilage was harvested from the chest. A cartilaginous frame work of the ear was made from this costal cartilage based on the pattern made from the opposite ear so as to match it in size and shape. This was buried under the skin behind the ear and left for three months. 

In the second stage this framework was lifted up along with the overlying skin and skin graft was applied on the posterior surface to give a good appearance of ear. In the chest there is a thin scar and this does not leave any disability in the chest.

Loss of ear due to burns	Reconstruction with costal cartilage framework

Partial loss of ear:
Sometimes parts of ear can be lost due to injury or accident. This picture shows a lady with partial loss of ear due to injury and the loss was mainly in the lower half of the ear.  She wanted to have a normal looking ear and wanted to be able to wear a ear ring. The helical rim and lobule were created using the skin from behind the ear.  This skin was transferred to the ear in stages. The final result shows a near normal ear where the patient wears a ear ring.

Loss of lower helical rim and ear lobule	Reconstruction with post auricular flap

Apart from accidents parts of ear can be lost due to human bite or animal bite also. If good pieces of cartilage are available they can be buried in the skin pocket created behind the ear. This gives an appearance of the ear being stuck to the head. At a later stage this can be elevated back to the normal position and skin graft placed behind it to give a near normal appearance of the ear. This man shows a ear reconstruction after he got a part of ear amputated due to human bite.