title: Surgical treatment of recurring preauricular sinus: supra-auricular approach.
abstract: Congenital preauricular sinus is a malformation of the preauricular soft tissues with an incidence ranging between 0.1 and 0.9% in Europe and the United States. It presents a high risk of recurrence when treated by a standard surgical technique (simple sinectomy), the incidence of which is reported to be between 19% and 40%. The supra-auricular approach, proposed by Prasad et al. in 1990, is easier to perform and presents a lower recurrence risk. Personal experience is presented in the treatment of congenital preauricular sinus with the supra-auricular approach as first choice or in the case of recurrence following previous standard surgery. This report includes a short review of the literature in order not only to focus on the supra-auricular approach and check the efficacy as far as concerns reduction of recurrence risk but also to contribute to a more widespread use of this method.
authors.affiliation: ENT Dept., USL11, Empoli, Italy.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Leopardi
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Chiarella
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Conti
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Cassandro
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D004427:Ear Diseases / Q000151:congenital* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000601:surgery*; D004431:Ear, External / Q000002:abnormalities* / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D005402:Fistula / Q000151:congenital* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D012008:Recurrence; D012737:Sex Factors