Treatment of postburn ear defect with expanded upper arm flap and consequent expansion without skin grafting.

Abstract

Total ear reconstruction in the postburn auricle is one of the most challenging procedures for plastic surgeons. Adverse factors associated with these procedures include reduced or damaged blood supply, poor elasticity of scar tissue, increased risk of infection, and the possible destruction of skin, temporoparietal fascia, or retroauricular fascia. In cases where patients are severely burned, free flaps, such as radial forearm flaps, contralateral temporoparietal fascial flaps, or omental flaps, can be used as framework envelopes. In this work, we introduced a novel method of expanded upper arm flap transfer, followed by an expansion method of total ear reconstruction without skin grafting.