Altered spatial perception following harvest of a posterior auricular skin graft.
A 57-year-old man blind since an early age lost significant ability to orient himself in space regarding surrounding objects after his left ear was retropositioned to close a retroauricular full-thickness skin graft donor site. Release of the ear to its former position corrected the disability. We warn readers that long-time blind persons develop alternate methods to vision and a seemingly insignificant change of ear position may alter spatial orientation.
Buchele
B A
BA
Division of Plastic Surgery, Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, Springfield.
Zook
E G
EG
D001766:Blindness / Q000150:complications; D005153:Facial Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010468:Perceptual Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D012535:Scalp; D016038:Skin Transplantation; D013028:Space Perception; D014182:Transplantation, Autologous / Q000009:adverse effects