title: A case report on a burned ear: Elastic memory of cartilage following temporary burial in a skin pocket.
abstract: Preserving exposed ear cartilage following a facial burn remains a major challenge. Normally, burned ear cartilage cannot be preserved in case of a full thickness burn of the overlying skin, and the cartilage has to be surgically removed. Sometimes, reconstructions can be performed at a later stage. We report a case where burned ear cartilage was directly surgically buried in a retroauricular skin pocket showing remarkable elastic memory: the buried ear cartilage, in this case the antihelix, regenerated over time and regained its original position protruding from the facial area. This case illustrates that ear cartilage is highly resilient, even when it has sustained significant thermal damage, and can be buried in a retroauricular skin pocket to avoid radical excision of the framework.
authors.affiliation: MOVE Research Institute and Department of Plastic, Reconstructive and Hand Surgery, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Electronic address: d.visscher@vumc.nl.
authors.forename: D O
authors.initials: DO
authors.lastname: Visscher
authors.affiliation: MOVE Research Institute and Department of Plastic, Reconstructive and Hand Surgery, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Dutch Burn Centre & Department of Plastic, Reconstructive and Hand Surgery, Red Cross Hospital, Beverwijk, The Netherlands; Association of Dutch Burn Centres, Beverwijk, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: P P M
authors.initials: PPM
authors.lastname: van Zuijlen
mesh_terms: D002056:Burns / Q000601:surgery*; D003646:Debridement; D004425:Ear Cartilage / Q000601:surgery*; D004431:Ear, External / Q000293:injuries* / Q000601:surgery; D005151:Facial Injuries / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D019651:Plastic Surgery Procedures
keywords: Burns; Cartilage; Ear; Reconstruction