title: Pitanguy's otoplasty: report of 551 operations.
abstract: Protruding ears is a common condition and in plastic surgery there are many techniques for correcting them such as suture, transection, and scoring. Over a period of 15 years, we have used Pitanguy's otoplasty. The advantages of the Pitanguy technique have been verified in a retrospective study of 278 patients followed up for up to 15 years. There were 20 relapses (4%), which is clearly lower than the mean (between 8% and 11%) for patients treated by other methods. The main reason for our low rate resulted from the generation of large scarring areas, using a combination of transection and seaming. We think that a slightly modified Pitanguy's method reduces postoperative morbidity which affects the aesthetic results.
authors.affiliation: Klinik für Hand-, Plastische-, Rekonstruktive- und Verbrennungschirurgie, Universität Tübingen, BG-Unfallklinik, Tübingen, Germany. fwerdin@gmx.de
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Werdin
authors.forename: Marianne
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wolters
authors.forename: Hermann
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lampe
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004425:Ear Cartilage / Q000002:abnormalities* / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D019651:Plastic Surgery Procedures / Q000379:methods*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016896:Treatment Outcome