Repair of a earlobe cleft and piercing

Repair of earlobe cleft  and piercing correction are among the most popular operations among young people to correct the consequences of a classic or fashion earring. In other cases, there are earlobe imperfections, which are often pathologies that may be due to congenital malformations (resulting in a change in size or, in rare cases, complete division of the lobe), or to trauma or inflammation of the skin.

Signs and symptoms of the earlobe

Disorders of the earlobe can present with a variety of signs and symptoms:

-swelling of the earlobe without pain

-swelling and redness behind the ear

-hard elastic swelling behind the ear at an earring

-enlargement of the earlobe hole until separation (earlobe schisis)

Causes can be sebaceous cysts of the earlobe, seasonal seborrheic dermatitis, metal irritation due to nickel release from the earring or hypertrophic or keloid scars due to trauma and subsequent scarring due to earrings or dilators.

Surgical options for earlobe cleft repair and piercing correction

In these cases it is possible to resort to reductive and remodelling plastic surgery or, in the case of lobe separation, to the closure of the fissure and the reconstruction of the part through very small sutures. When the earring is torn, a full-thickness tear is created in the lobe between the existing hole and the lower edge. The operation allows the lobe to be reconstructed by joining and possibly reducing the flaps. Due to its traumatic nature, the defect is usually only on one side.

In other cases, removal of the cyst or removal of the lobe hole damaged by chronic inflammation is necessary. In the case of swelling behind the lobe due to hypertrophic or keloid scarring the therapy is initially by cortisone infiltration and only in extreme cases the surgical option always associated with a postoperative compressive treatment with pressure earrings or finally with loco-regional radiotherapy by means of external Plesio Radiotherapy or Brachytherapy with a small catheter to be applied during the operation.

Aesthetic micro-surgery of the ears also allows other imperfections to be corrected, such as: floppy ears (absent or insufficient hereditary folding of the ear cartilages) or reduction of the auricle (frequent in old age).

With a small outpatient operation under local anesthesia, Dr Tommaso Savoia is able to restore the integrity of the lobe. The operation usually requires a small, practically invisible vertical scar in order to stably reconstruct the lobe structure.
After at least 3 months, a new hole may be drilled in a location slightly lateral or higher than the scar to avoid recurrence.

The same procedure, with minor variations, can also be used to correct altered lobes, which are too large or pendulous due to the use of dilators, piercings or similar accessories, as well as lobe loss due to trauma. This is a case where the lobe completely loses its physiological elasticity without being able to return to its natural size and shape. In all cases where the skin of the earlobe is reduced or remodeled, the hole in the earlobe can also be restored, so that the wearer can return to wearing jewelry without any preclusion, except for the precaution of avoiding excessively heavy objects that could lead to a recurrence of dilatation.