title: Surgical treatment of congenital aural atresia - is it still justified?
abstract: CONCLUSIONS
  Surgery candidacy based on the surgical accessibility of the middle ear seems more valuable than the use of a preoperative grading system. Also patients with severe malformations can benefit from surgical reconstruction.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the long-term results of the primary surgical treatment of patients with congenital auricular atresia (CAA).
  
  
  METHODS
  One hundred patients with CAA underwent surgical reconstruction between 1985 and 2010. The mean follow-up time was 40 months. All patients were retrospectively scored using the Jahrsdoerfer grading scale and divided into two groups according to the grade of their malformation. Group 1 included 20 patients with scores of 4-6 and group 2 included 80 patients with scores of 7-10. Pre- and postoperative air conduction (AC), bone conduction (BC), pure-tone average 'air-bone gap' (PTA₄-ABG), surgical findings, postoperative complications, and revision surgeries performed were determined and compared between the two groups.
  
  
  RESULTS
  For 90% of the patients in group 1 and 79% of the patients in group 2, the postoperative ABG was within 0 and 30 dB. The most common complications were recurrent infection, lateralization of the tympanic membrane, and restenosis of the ear canal.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgical Sciences, Section of Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery, Uppsala University , Uppsala , Sweden.
authors.forename: Lennart
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Edfeldt
authors.forename: Karin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Strömbäck
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D000013:Congenital Abnormalities / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000601:surgery*; D004423:Ear / Q000002:abnormalities* / Q000601:surgery; D006320:Hearing Tests; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D013506:Otologic Surgical Procedures / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000453:epidemiology*; D011379:Prognosis; D012086:Reoperation; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: atresiaplasty; grade of malformation; long-term results