Following the diagnosis, a comprehensive treatment plan is made that includes long-term psychosocial as well as surgical follow-up.
Otoplasty for microtia requires a series of three or four separate operations.
Otoplasty to correct microtia is usually started when the child is at least five years old.
The second and third operations are done to shape the ear lobe and to raise the new ear into its final position.
The surgeon works from a template derived from photographs and computer models when he or she carves the cartilage into the desired shape.
In the first operation, a piece of cartilage is removed from the child's rib cage on the side opposite the affected ear, so that the surgeon can use the natural curve of the cartilage in fashioning the new ear.
The surgeon must remove a portion of rib cartilage in order to construct a framework for the missing ear, and children younger than five may not have enough cartilage.
The reconstruction of a missing ear must be done in several stages because the surgeon must allow for changes in the proportions of the child's face and skull as he or she matures and to make the new ear look as normal as possible.
Diagnosis of microtia is made by the obstetrician or pediatrician at the time of the child's birth.
There are, however, relatively few plastic surgeons who perform otoplasties for microtia.
Anotia and Microtia
This type of birth defect is called microtia; it occurs in such disorders as hemifacial microsomia and Treacher Collins syndrome.
Otoplasties for microtia and prominent or deformed ears are specialized procedures performed only by qualified plastic surgeons.