Last week Ken Stewart gave a lecture on ear reconstruction to the audience of the BAPRAS Winter Scientific meeting. BAPRAS is the British Association of Plastic Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons, a charity that acts as the voice of plastic surgery in the UK and aims to raise awareness of the breadth of plastic surgery and promote innovation in teaching, learning and research. Ken has often worked with BAPRAS and was invited as a guest speaker.
The lecture discussed the relative benefits of different approaches to external ear reconstruction including the use silicone prosthetics, autologous cartilage based reconstruction and porous polyethylene implant based reconstruction.
Ken argues that for too long care was delivered in an ad hoc manner with little collaboration between disciplines. The collaboration of the EarSIG of BAPRAS, ENTUK and BAPA to produce UK Care Standards for microtia and atresia patients advocates the multidisciplinary care of patients within specialised teams.