Plastic reconstruction of both earlobes due to circular defects following ear stretching

Introduction In order to insert so-called flesh tunnels into the earlobe, the earlobe needs to be stretched or gauged. The defects caused by this method can only be reconstructed using plastic surgery.

Case presentation We present the case of a 24 year old female patient, which presented initially with inflammed defects of both earlobes due to wearing a tight helmet. The stretching had lead to defects of about 4 cm on both sides, initial treatment consisted of intravenous and topic treatment with antibiotics. The patient requested reconstruction of the defects, for which we used an adaption of the "rolling earlobe flap" as described by Pet at al 2016. In our case however we decided against rolling the earlobe flap and adapted the flap after shortening directly to the caudal helical edge and the facial-lobular angle.

Discussion Due to the increasing trend of ear stretching and insertion of flesh tunnels the number of patients who wish for a plastic reconstruction is rising. Our method is a simple yet robust technique for reconstruction of these defects.

Poster-PDF A-1310.PDF

Publication History

Article published online:
10 June 2020