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Ear reconstruction

Gentlemen:

My son has microtia [an abnormally small ear] and we have difficulty in deciding which option to have in respect to surgery, i.e. prosthetic or reconstructed ear from rib cage. I wonder can you help me with the following query? Is there any material been developed now or in the future, to avoid using a person's ribs for the surgery?

I hope this is not a silly question and you can respond at your convenience.

Many thanks for your help.
NC

Hi NC:

There are no silly questions, only silly answers.

There have been several inquiries about this over the last couple of years, incidentally. I'm certainly not a physician, but there has been some research work in this area. I can't answer for the state of the art or what is actually being done in clinical practice, however. Generally the approaches involve making a prosthetic using stereolithography or other RP techniques, or using similar fabrication methods to make a replica out of cartilage. I believe these are both more prosthetic than integral solutions.

I've attached a few abstracts of papers from our bibliography section below, one of which (Park et al) seems very appropriate. Unfortunately that one is just a paper reference with no abstract. I checked the National Library of Med to see if they've added it, but apparently not. You can do more exploring there yourself at:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed/

More important than these specific papers are the authors. These are the people who will know what's really going on in detail, and can tell you who you can go to for more information. You can get some pointers about finding papers and authors on our site at:

http://home.att.net/~castleisland/resrch.htm

Since you are in the UK, you might want to get in touch with Dr. Ninian Peckitt. His area is mainly maxillofacial surgery (the area between the eyes and the top jaw), but he knows the field intimately and can direct you. Also, he has been very kind and responsive in the past with us, and I'd suggest you use my name and mention the Worldwide Guide to RP in your email. Here are his particulars:

Ninian Peckitt FRCS FFD RCS FDS RCS
Director - ComputerGen Implants Ltd
Department of Engineering Assisted Surgery St Chad's House, Hooton Pagnell,
Doncaster DN5 7BW
United Kingdom

Tel/Fax: +44 (0)1977 658988

Email: peckitt@maxfac.com

Web: http://www.maxfac.com

I hope this helps - and please let me know if it does! I send my best regards.

Ed Grenda
Castle Island Co.
The Worldwide Guide to Rapid Prototyping

Ed,

Thank you for giving me your time in responding to my query. I would just like to say that I will follow up all the sites you have given me and I sure it will help us in making a decision about which option to choose, i.e., prosthetic ear or reconstruction one.

I appreciate you help and take care
NC