The Department of Plastic Surgery at the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital has successfully reconstructed the right ear of an 18-year-old college student from Erode who was suffering from by Microtia.

Briefing reporters here, Dr. Edwin Joe, Dean of CMCH said that D. Anbarasan was brought to the Department of Plastic Surgery as his face was deformed from childhood. “His right ear was not in the place where it should be, and his external ear was absent. Hence, we decided to use his own cartilage from the chest to reconstruct his ear,” he said.

He added that the reconstruction was successful and the patient can now clearly hear the things around him. “He was previously having troubles with hearing,” he informed.

According to Dr. B. Asokan, the head of the department of plastic surgery, Microtia or the absence of external ear, affects two out of 10,000 human beings. He said that the patient’s own cartilage was used to build the ear as artificial implants would cause infections in the ear.

“The rare disorder is a result of consanguineous marriages. Usually, only one ear is affected which usually doesn’t affect the individual’s hearing. But, if both the ears are affected, then the person could have hearing difficulties,” he added.

The surgery was performed free of cost at CMCH.