Safety and Efficacy of Connecting the Residual Ear to the Cartilage Scaffold in First- vs. Second-Stage Surgery

Two-stage connection refers to a procedure that connecting and incorporating the cartilage framework with the residual ear during the second stage surgery of ear reconstruction. An intact cartilage framework is embedded in skin pocket in the first stage, hence, in the second stage of surgery, parts of the cartilage framework that has already survived will be shaved off to ensure the firm combination between the residual era cartilage and grafted costal cartilage.

One-stage connection refers to a procedure that connecting and incorporating the cartilage framework with the residual ear in the first stage surgery of ear reconstruction. In one-stage surgery, the cartilage framework is connected with the residual ear (non-deformed, unexcluded part) to form a smooth and complete ear subunit structure. In this way, it is necessary to trim the excess postauricular skin, which may pose a greater risk of blood supply. After the first stage of surgery, the overall appearance of surgical ear is already roughly similar to that of a normal ear.