ABSTRACT
Results Brent followed Tanzer in perfecting the ear reconstruction. Brent was the pioneer of ear reconstruction. Brent reports that his favorite age to perform ear reconstruction is between 7 and 8 years old when the child is large enough for substantial rib cartilage graft harvest and is becoming aware of the deformity. In his experience Medpor (Porex Surgical Products Group, Newnan, GA) implants are not as resistant to trauma as autogenous grafts and are more prone to infectious complications with resultant draining sinus tracts. Brent reported that he had not lost an ear cartilage graft to trauma after 10 days of the operation. Although prefabrication was originally attempted in the 1940s,2 the technique resulted in inconsistent results. Prefabrication has been revisited in recent years as tissue engineering has become more popular. This technique is still in the early stages of development, and sculpting autogenous rib cartilage currently remains the procedure of choice for ear reconstruction.
