Current opinion on auricular reconstruction.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: To review the current practice in the field of auricular reconstruction and to highlight the recent advances reported in the medical literature.

RECENT FINDINGS: The majority of surgeons who perform auricular reconstruction continue to employ the well-established techniques developed by Brent and Nagata. Surgery takes between two and four stages, with the initial stage being construction of a framework of autogenous rib cartilage which is implanted into a subcutaneous pocket. Several modifications of these techniques have been reported. More recently, synthetic frameworks have been employed instead of autogenous rib cartilage. For this procedure, the implant is generally covered with a temporoparietal flap and a skin graft at the first stage of surgery. Tissue engineering is a rapidly developing field, and there have been several articles related to the field of auricular reconstruction. These show great potential to offer a solution to the challenge associated with construction of a viable autogenous cartilage framework, whilst avoiding donor-site morbidity.

SUMMARY: This article gives an overview of the current practice in the field of auricular reconstruction and summarizes the recent surgical developments and relevant tissue engineering research.