Surgical and conservative repair of Stahl's ear

Abstract

Surgical and non-surgical procedures for the correction of Stahl's ear anomaly, more commonly found in Oriental races, are presented. The final postoperative appearance is aesthetically pleasing, acceptable, and encouraging to the patient with this deformity.

Invited commentary

“…Knowledge of the treatment of neonates with misshapen ears using splints in the first few days of life is, unfortunately, not widespread, although the technique has been previously described by many authors [1][2][3][4][5][6]. It is to be hoped that this paper will induce plastic surgeons to encourage paediatricians, midwives and health visitors to refer such cases.…”

“…Tensile or compressive forces during intauterine life may distort the auricular shape and lead to increases or changes in its size and shape, depending on the direction in which these forces act [1]. We think, therefore, that auricular anomalies which are classified as lop ears and lobes in antevertion, are really deformities which occur in a normally formed auricle as a result of the pressures suffered by the head of the fetus when it is in the mother's pelvis.…”

An Alternative Approach for Correction of Stahl???s Ear

“…A major problem with this technique is the need for prolonged postoperative ear splinting to maintain the normal ear shape. Nakajima et al 12 recommended Z-plasty realignment of the third crus. However, cartilage is not readily suited to transposition of flaps, and the procedure can result in buckling or poor approximation under tension.…”

Surgical correction of constricted ear combined with Stahl's ear

“…To eliminate the third crus and correct Stahl's ear, the full-thickness abnormal auricular cartilage was excised by Nakajima, and the reversed cartilage was grafted at its 9 According to Gleizal, resection of the remaining fibers of the transverse muscle could relax the constraints on the helix, and Mustarde's sutures could replace the posterior branch of the antihelix in a normal position. 10 Compared with Nakajima and Gleizal, we applied different techniques with the abnormal third crus.…”