テープ装着による耳介奇形の治療—臨床的ならびに実験的研究

Tape Attachment Therapy for Correction of Congenital Malformations of the Auricle : Experimental and Clinical Studies

I．緒言

　耳介奇形には実にさまざまな形があり，その分類，名称も確立していない。埋没耳に関しては保存療法^1〜3）と手術療法^4〜10）があり，我々は保存療法にてその大半を治療している^3）。埋没耳において耳介上部が側頭部皮下に埋まることにより軟骨の変形がひきおこされる。ところが，装具療法によりこの軟骨の変形も治る例が多いことに気づき，他の耳介奇形に応用し満足する結果を得た。あわせてこのことを家兎耳介を用いて実験的に確認したので，若干の考察を加えて報告する。

　After the auricular cartilage of 5-week-old rabbits was bent and fixed by suture, the cartilage increased its thickness in a short period of time. Six weeks later, the thickness became the largest, and 12 weeks later the thickness decreased and the auricle was fixed in curved form. There was no difference of the morphology of the cartilagenous cells between the bent group and the control.

　Tape attachment therapy was very simple. We proposed that surgical treatment should be designed after the tape attachment therapy was performed for a few months.

　In our present study, the effect of taping was good in four cases of Stahl ear, an atypical cryptotia and the other. In two cases of cup ear the result was fair. As the result, cup ear with severe deformity of the auricle was incurable by the present treatment of tape attachment.