Title and Copyright:
Retracting Neo-Auricle, ©2000.

Media:
Pen and ink illustration finished in Adobe Photoshop.

Collaborator:
David Hamlar, MD, DDS; Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, University of Minnesota; Minneapolis Minnesota.

Description:
In the staged repair of external auditory canal atresia and microtia, the external ear can retract into the newly formed canal. The auricular cartilage framework is inserted first and allowed to heal. Canalplasty is then performed at the appropriate time during the standard staged microtia repair. (A) Following the meatoplasty, the surgeon sutures the canal split-thickness skin graft to the tissue edge of the reconstructed auricle created by the meatoplasty. (B) As the skin graft lining the neo-canal heals, it can retract and pull on the new auricle resulting in wrinkling and change in shape of the reconstructed external ear.

Presented as:
Walsh WE, Roy S, Levine S, Hamlar DD. “The sequence of atresia repair and microtia reconstruction.” Triological Society Combined Spring Otolaryngology Meetings; Palm Desert, CA: May 2001.