Yildirim Y, Fischer H, Gubisch W
Klinik für plastische Gesichtschirurgie, Marienhospital Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany.
HNO. 2007 Sep;55(9):696-708. doi: 10.1007/s00106-006-1508-2.
Protruding ears are usually caused by an overdeveloped concha and the lack of an anthelical fold. To reconstruct this fold, we applied the open anterior cartilage scoring technique. There are two different approaches for this technique, anterior access or posterior access. We have used the latter for years. After finding some minor partial relapses, we started a prospective study to compare the objective results of both techniques.
Forty patients underwent surgery (20 with anterior access and 20 with posterior access). The position of the ear to the head, which was defined by several standardized points of the ear (distance between the helical rim and the mastoid), was measured preoperatively, 3 weeks postoperatively after removing the anchoring splint sutures, and 3 months postoperatively.
The differences between the measurements in the third week and third month show postoperative stability.
We could achieve the same stability using both techniques, but obtained more symmetrical results with posterior access.
