Ear Cartilage—1

Abstract

The use of ear cartilage for auriculoplasty was no novelty by the start of the 1970s. It had been used successfully in different ways for partial ear repair (Adams, Navabi, Cardoso and Sperli, Antia, Millard, Lewin and Argamoso, and others), but the opinion prevailed that there was not enough cartilage for subtotal reconstruction. At that time, in spite of the distance that separated us, Mark Gorney and I sat down together several times to thrash the matter out, and we were convinced it could be done. He had returned from war in Korea, was back to civilian life, and deeply interested in ship Hope. In 1971 Mark, Murphy, and Falces presented and published their original paper on major ear construction with auricular cartilage. Mark still felt, however, that Rad Tanzer was getting better results with rib, and he tenaciously strove for improvement. He was close to Burt Brent, geographically and personally, and they shared academic work. His fluent Spanish made him a favorite in Mexico, where he was born, and he has lectured many times on ear reconstruction. He was always ready for his pet subject, in spite of the exhausting legal and executive positions that dominated so much of his time. I pay tribute here to the pioneer, and to my friend.