Earlobe Plasty: A short review

Abstract

Earlobe piercing is a part of each and every culture and tradition, the history of which dates back to ancient times 5000 years ago. This ancient art of body piercing has become a part of the fashion process in the recent times. 2 Latin Americans have routinely pierced the earlobes of new born girls to indicate sexual identity.3Butnowadays, earlobe piercing is a quotidian event in all groups of population. Individuals who are currently 20 to 25 years old are given the term Generation X (extreme). This generation X group of youth has distinguished themselves with extremes in sports, music, designer drugs, tattoos and body piercing. With the resurgence of ear piercing, more and more patients presents with the complications from these procedures. The most common local complications of earlobe piercings include minor infections, contact dermatitis, infection of the lobule, formation of keloid, lobular tissue loss, elongation of the earlobe, splitting of the earlobe. The repair of elongated or split earlobes is frequently done by cosmetic surgeons. There are various procedures reported in the literature for this repair.