Does it hurt to remove ear cartilage?

The ear is an indispensable part of the human body structure. I believe that anyone who has a certain understanding of the structure of the ear will know that the ear is mainly composed of some cartilage tissue. This leads to many people using some ear cartilage to fill their noses during daily plastic surgery to make their noses more straight and upturned. So will it feel very painful when removing ear cartilage? Let us find out through the following article.

If the available septal cartilage has been exhausted, ear cartilage can provide a larger amount of cartilage tissue for rhinoplasty. Ear cartilage can be transplanted to the nose tip, nose dorsum, and nose wing contour, and can be used to reconstruct the outer and lower cartilage. However, because its tissue is relatively soft, it cannot be used for nasal support structures. There will be no obvious deformation or scar formation in the ear cartilage donor area. Cartilage was harvested through the preauricular approach for nasal tip transplantation and lateral lower cartilage reconstruction.

3 ml of 1% lidocaine solution containing 1:100,000 epinephrine can be injected on the surface of the cartilage to achieve the purpose of hemostasis and swelling stripping. Use a No. 15 blade to make a 3 mm incision in the skin along the inner side of the concha cavity, and use small scissors to peel off along the deep surface of the perichondrium. Use a No. 15 blade to cut the cartilage about 3 mm inside the edge of the concha and parallel to the edge of the concha, so that the integrity of the auricular cartilage can still be maintained. Use small scissors to peel back the concha cartilage behind the ear. Once the cartilage stripping is completed in all areas from the front to the back of the ear, the cartilage can be removed with a No. 15 blade. After hemostasis, the incision was sutured continuously with 5-0 sutures. Place cotton balls in front and behind the skin of the concha cavity and fix them with 3-0 nylon sutures to prevent the occurrence of hematoma. Remove the cotton balls 3 days after the operation.

Obtaining ear cartilage

If a longer, more plastic piece of auricular cartilage is desired, a retroauricular approach is usually used. First, inject local anesthetic into the area of ​​auricular cartilage to be cut, that is, inject about 3 ml of 1% lidocaine solution containing 1:100,000 epinephrine into the superficial and deep layers of the auricular perichondrium. A 3 cm incision was made in the dorsal skin of the concha cavity with a No. 15 blade. After peeling from the skin to the perichondrium using small scissors, the deep and superficial layers of the perichondrium in the concha cavity were sharply peeled to the postauricular groove. A 25G needle dipped in methylene blue can be used to penetrate from the front to the back of the auricle to mark the range of cartilage removal. Care should be taken to preserve approximately 3 mm of concha cartilage, which is located along the concha above the crus of the antihelix and below the pretragus notch to prevent donor site deformity. Next, use a No. 15 blade to draw the outline of the required ear cartilage, and then use small scissors to peel off from the skin in front of the ear to the perichondrium, and then peel sharply on the deep surface of the perichondrium of the concha cavity. Once the desired cartilage has been separated from the preauricular and postauricular skin, the auricular cartilage is harvested using a No. 15 blade. After hemostasis, the skin incision was sutured continuously with 5-0 normal gut. The concha cavity is also compressed and fixed with cotton balls and fixed with 3-0 nylon thread to prevent the occurrence of hematoma.