Baby boy with half-flat face and small ear deformity successfully operated

Baby boy before and after ear and face plastic surgery - Photo: Provided by the hospital

The patient is NBN (5 years old), suffering from both hemifacial atrophy and congenital microtia.

Previously, N. had visited many places for examination, but the doctors advised that the technique of ear reconstruction using rib cartilage should be applied, so he would have to undergo surgery at least 2-4 times. At the same time, he would have to wait until he was 10-12 years old to have a large enough chest and be healthy enough for ear reconstruction surgery.

After that, if the patient wants to correct the face, he or she will need jaw surgery to treat facial asymmetry, which is also a major surgery with many risks of complications.

After researching, the family took the child to visit and consult at the maxillofacial cosmetic surgery department, Viet Duc Friendship Hospital.

After examination, the doctors advised performing small ear shaping technique using Medpor artificial cartilage and then grafting autologous fat rich in stem cells to compensate for the atrophied facial volume.

According to Dr. Nguyen Hong Ha - Head of the Department of Maxillofacial Plastic Surgery, Viet Duc Friendship Hospital, autologous fat grafting can be performed after ear plastic surgery or combined at the same time with much less risk and complications than facial bone surgery.

At the same time, thanks to the application of modern microsurgical and cosmetic endoscopic techniques in one-stage ear reshaping and autologous fat injection rich in stem cells.

After the surgery, baby N. has new ears and a balanced face, helping her feel more confident as she prepares to enter first grade.

Doctor Ha added that with current pathological lesions of hemifacial atrophy, there are many treatment methods with different advantages and disadvantages.

Microsurgical fascioplasty can provide immediate fat volume. However, this fat is often unevenly distributed, and microsurgical surgery often lasts several hours with many risks of complications.

Maxillofacial bone stretching methods meet the need to increase bone size with little change in the covering soft tissue.

In addition, this method requires a long time of many bone intervention surgeries, so there are many potential risks and complications. With the classic autologous fat injection method, it is possible to bring soft and uniform material to each concave or asymmetrical area on the face.

The disadvantage of the classic fat injection technique is that the injected fat often shrinks afterwards, sometimes losing 60 - 80% of the injected volume, leading to patients often having to perform 3 - 4 fat injections, which often do not achieve the desired effect.

"That is why in recent years we have researched, improved and applied stem cell-rich fat injection techniques in the treatment of hemifacial atrophy or facial asymmetry, increasing the success rate and reducing the number of surgeries for patients.

In addition, autologous fat is also a biological material, so it is completely compatible and therefore has much less risk of rejection or complications than fillers, which are artificial products currently on the market," said Dr. Ha.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/be-trai-lep-nua-mat-di-tat-tai-nho-duoc-phau-thuat-thanh-cong-20240614101638808.htm