1.What are the congenital ear deformities? The common congenital ear deformities are: attached ear, crypt ear, wind-up ear, cup-shaped ear, lobe split and various degrees of microtia. 2. Do I need to have surgery for an attached ear? How is it done? When should it be done? An appendage is an ear-shaped tissue that grows in front of the ear, also known as a “small ear”. They can be large or small, unilateral or bilateral, and do not affect hearing, but do affect appearance. To remove them, a very small excision is required. The surgery can be done in early childhood or a little older, but the ears will also grow as the child’s face grows, so the younger the surgery is done, the less it will affect the child and the shorter the scar will be, and the child will not be left with a memory if the surgery is done in infancy. 3. What does a hidden ear look like? How is it surgically repaired? As the name implies, the ear is there, but part of it is hidden! You may think it’s amazing, but you can see this in clinical practice. In most cases, the upper part of the ear is hidden in the skin of the head and only the lower part is exposed. Because the ear is still intact, it is only partially “hidden”, so surgery is required to release the “hidden” part of the ear. The best time to have surgery is before school age! 4. What is the shape of the ear? How do I correct it? In normal people, there is a certain angle between the ear and the skull, but the angle is usually between 25-35 degrees. However, in some people, this angle exceeds the normal angle and is even close to 90 degrees vertically on both sides of the skull. Such ears are commonly known as “windy ears”, which affect the appearance of the face to a certain extent! Wind-swept ears can be repaired through surgery, and after surgery, they can achieve a normal shape. 5.What kind of ear is called cup-shaped ear? How can it be repaired? When is the repair done? The deformity of cup-shaped ears is more severe than that of the wind-swept ears. It is a manifestation of the ear that is not fully developed, giving the impression that the ears are smaller and that something is missing in the structure. In mild cases, the ear can be repaired by rearranging the ear cartilage, while in severe cases, partial ear reconstruction may be required. 6. Repair methods and repair time for cleft earlobe and other earlobe deformities. Congenital malformations of the earlobe include cleft earlobe (mostly manifested as a cut in the earlobe, like a split), folded earlobe (the earlobe is not flat and forms a fold), and congenital partial or total absence of the earlobe. In the case of cleft earlobe and folded earlobe, a repair surgery can be performed between 3 and 6 months of age; in the case of missing earlobe, the earlobe can be reconstructed between 1 and 3 years of age. 7. Performance and classification of microtia (auricular hypoplasia) Microtia is actually different degrees of ear hypoplasia, mainly manifested as different degrees of auricular absence, with or without atresia of the external auditory canal and hypoplasia of the inner ear. It is generally classified as mild, moderate or severe according to the amount of external auricular agenesis. In mild cases, the earlobe and almost half of the auricle are visible, and the shape of the auricle is different from normal; in moderate cases, the earlobe and a small part of the auricular tissue are visible; in severe cases, only the earlobe and a few remnants of the auricle remain or even the earlobe is not fully developed. 8.Treatment for microtia (auricular dysplasia) (pre- and post-operative photos) In patients with microtia, even if the external ear canal is atretic, the affected ear can still retain some hearing to a greater or lesser extent, so the main treatment for microtia is to reconstruct the auricle and restore its shape. The most common and reliable method of auricular reconstruction is still the use of autologous rib cartilage to sculpt the auricular scaffold and then reconstruct the outer ear. The surgery is generally performed in two stages, with the first stage being the sculpting of the ear scaffold, which is buried in the affected ear, and then the reconstructed ear is “erected” six months later to form the normal cranial ear angle. 9.The best time to treat microtia (congenital auricular dysplasia) The best age for ear reconstruction is 7~9 years old. For some children with good development or who only need to reconstruct part of the ear, it can be done at 6~7 years old, before school age. 10.Does taking autologous rib cartilage to reconstruct the ear affect the development of the thorax or affect breathing? Taking only part of the rib cartilage is like opening a window in the wall and taking out the material, but the wall will not collapse. Moreover, the retained cartilage membrane will regenerate part of the rib cartilage, so it will not affect the development of the thorax and breathing.