Harvesting Various Kinds of Grafts from Postauricular Region

Lee, Yoon Ho; Jeong, Jae Hoon

Abstract

Harvesting grafts at another area in facial surgery would be complicating and troublesome. Moreover the additional scar would be remarkable. So authors have harvested grafts from the postauricular area. Between March of 2004 and January of 2008, we had harvested grafts from the postauricular area in 132 patients. We incised along the postauricular hair line. We made deep incision until we found adequate tissues. Then we dissected to the side as much as the right size. After harvesting, we closed the wound and made an aseptic compressive dressing. We compared pre-operative states to post-operative results with medical photos and made a survey of the patient's degree of satisfaction. We obtained various grafts such as the skin, hair, dermis, dermofat, fascia, fasciofat and bone from the postauricular area. We could use these in the eyelid, nose, chin, scar and anywhere. The fat graft was useful in the thin area such as eyelid. We got good results by using dermofat graft in nasal dorsum and fasciofat graft in nasal tip area. The scar was not seen in the frontal view and camouflaged by the hair easily. By harvesting grafts from the postauricular area, we can get various grafts in the same operative field and this procedure is very simple. Moreover the scar is not seen easily. Therefore this method is not only the good choice but also the best choice of the graft donor site.