For medical professionals only
The baby has a hidden ear that was cured by an orthosis.
When my son was born, he had a special mark on his body: an unusual ear.
At first, I didn't pay attention to it, and I struggled with whether to treat it or not. Until the outbreak of the new crown epidemic and everyone wore masks, our family suddenly realized that the choice at that time was correct.
Babies have an ear that "contracts"
My son was born in 2017. I was exhausted from contractions at 12:00 in the middle of the night to giving birth at 14:00 the next day. So when he was born, I didn't have any joy of motherhood, I was so tired that I didn't even look at it, I didn't know what my child looked like, and my mind was full of "finally liberated"!
My mother-in-law waited at the door of the delivery room for half a day, and finally waited until the nurse shouted my name to take the child out, quickly and carefully looked at the child several times, and carefully remembered the characteristics of the child.
Back in the ward, I asked my mother-in-law how the child was, and she said, "He has a mark on him!" ”
What's the mark? Is there a "king" on the brain door?
The mother-in-law pointed to the child's right ear, I looked, it is indeed different from other children, his ear pinna has a little indentation at the top, with a hand to pull out the complete ear pinna, the hand is loose and retracted again.
The right ear of the son 丨 author courtesy of the author
I don't think it's a big deal, it doesn't look like it affects hearing, at best it affects a little bit of aesthetics. Pull a pull, the child does not cry, do not make trouble, certainly not hurt. And all the tests during my pregnancy are normal, it is also a full-term birth, and the other indicators of my son are very good, and there should be no big problem.
However, for the sake of caution, the next day when the doctor rounded the room, I specifically asked the ear question, and the obstetrics and gynecology doctor looked at it and said that this is nothing, maybe after a while it will grow well.
So we confidently and boldly left the hospital and returned home. The son is very well-behaved, should eat, should sleep, basically an angel baby, fat, especially clever. At the time of the full moon physical examination, all his indicators were healthy, and as for this small flaw in the ear, I almost forgot about it when I couldn't see it.
On a disease poster in the hospital
Recognize the same kind of ear
When my son was 3 months old, we took him to a second physical examination. When the community doctors measured and weighed him, I wandered around the house and found a new poster on the wall. I walked over and looked at it, and one of the pictures above was very similar to my son's ears, it was exactly the same!
hey! Why is it that the propaganda poster is still on the scene? I fixed my eyes on it, it was about baby ear deformities, there are many kinds of strange ears, and the picture that looks like my son reads: Hidden ear.
The poster only introduces the types and characteristics of ear deformities, and does not talk about any effects or harms, and how to treat them. I quickly ran to the community doctor, pointed to my son's right ear, and then pointed to the poster on the wall: "Doctor, you see, is this the kind of ear on the poster?" ”
The community doctor probably saw this situation for the first time, she turned my son over, looked at it carefully, and compared it to the poster: "It's very similar, it should be." Then I called a colleague over, and the two of them studied and discussed it, and agreed that my son's ears matched the situation on the poster.
So what's next?
The community doctors were also a little dazed, thinking about it for half a day before remembering, saying: "When they came to put up the poster, they seemed to say that they could contact the Municipal Children's Hospital in this situation." So she called to inquire, and then gave us the name and telephone number of a doctor at the Municipal Children's Hospital: "I don't know how to treat it, so you can go to the Municipal Children's Hospital." ”
The next day we contacted the doctor and went to the OTS ward to look for her to see the child's ears.
"Pull your ears"
It took me two months' salary
Coming out of the children's hospital, my husband and I had a disagreement about whether we needed treatment.
We had just bought a house, and the loan we had to pay back every month was about one person's salary. And the child's ear needs to wear orthosis for physical therapy, the treatment fee and equipment costs add up, it takes nearly 9,000 yuan, all at my own expense, equivalent to my two months' salary, which will make our family, which is not rich, worse.
I think this ear does not affect the function, there is no discomfort, there is no need to spend so much money, nothing I will pull the son's ear, help the ear pinna grow out; Mr. feels that if the manual pull can not grow out, after going to school will be laughed at by classmates, so that the child is inferior.
To this end, we made another trip to the plastic surgery department of my cousin's hospital for advice. The doctor said that if the pinna is not pulled out by physical therapy within 6 months, it may be necessary to have plastic surgery and repair surgery after the age of 6.
Wearing orthoses is a physical therapy, which is to use the instrument to pull the ear to the correct position while the child's cartilage tissue is not yet developed, which is only the pain of flesh and skin; and plastic surgery is a big deal, the cost must be more than 9,000 pieces, and the suffering is more.
It seems that the ears themselves may not grow well, and they must rely on external forces. After thinking about it, we decided to grit our teeth, tighten our pants belts, and go to the city children's doctor to "pull the ears" for the children.
Correction for more than a month
The ears came out
After the 100-day feast, my son's right ear was covered with layers of tape (auricular orthosis). Doctors say that the orthosis can be worn for as little as one month and as much as three months, depending on the condition of the ear. Our situation is not too serious, it is easier to correct, and the success rate is still very high.
Orthosis 丨 Author courtesy of the image
The appearance of the orthosis worn on the ear 丨 The author provided the picture
Wearing earmuffs is not once and for all, but requires regular follow-up visits to the hospital. The baby's skin is very tender, smouldered by the tape for a long time, easy to redness and even infection, and needs to be opened and disinfected regularly. Earrings and retractors in the earcups also need to be checked regularly for displacement.
I thought it would be very uncomfortable to wear earmuffs, afraid that my son would pull on the earmuffs with his hands, especially when he was sleeping, afraid that his head would tilt over and press the corrected ear, so I paid special attention to him. My son is still very angry, he should eat and sleep during the wearing process, never hum and chirp, do not pull his ears, and go to the hospital for review and do not cry.
Wearing the orthosis also did not cry 丨 The author provided the picture
When I arrived at the children's hospital, I learned that there are still many children with ear deformities in the city, and they are basically gathered here for treatment. Many children have their hands and feet scrambling when they are checking and disinfecting, and they need to be pressed by adults to complete, compared to my son, who is really quiet.
A few days after putting it on, we had our first review. When the orthosis was first opened, the ears were normal, and after a while they retracted again. By the time of the second review, the ear could be retracted after a few seconds. After that, the pinna is structured longer and longer at a time.
After wearing it for more than a month, the doctor took away the orthosis during the review, pulled and pushed with his hand, and the son's ears did not retract again, everything was normal. At this point, the doctor announced that the correction was basically completed!
It wasn't until the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia epidemic that we needed to wear masks at all times that our whole family suddenly realized how necessary the correction was at that time! Otherwise, when the son grows up, it is estimated that the mask will not be hung.
▎ Doctor's comments
Zhuo Shanshan | Attending physician of the Department of Otorhinolaryngology of Tianjin Tianjin Hospital
The normal pinna is "C" shaped, and its role is not only to support the spectacle legs and wear a mask, but also to collect sound and help locate the sound source.
Normal ear morphology 丨 pixabay
Neonatal surveys in some parts of China show that the incidence of auricular deformities is 45%, and the self-healing rate is only 10%. At present, there are 8 types of auricular deformities, and the author's son in this article should be diagnosed as "hidden ear" according to the shape of the pinna.
Auricular deformity丨 References[1]
The causes of morphological deformity of the pinna mainly include the following four reasons: one is the abnormal fetal position during pregnancy, resulting in distortion of the pinna by external force squeezing; the second is the "failure" during embryonic development, resulting in abnormal folding of the cartilage of the pinna; the third is the loss of skin and cartilage in the auricle; and the fourth is genetic factors.
If a child with hidden ear is not treated as soon as possible, in addition to making it obviously difficult for the child to wear glasses, masks and other items when he grows up, as the author said, it may also affect the appearance, hearing and psychology of the child.
The results of the "Clinical Analysis of Congenital External Ear Malformations in Shanghai" show that the hearing screening results of children with auricular malformations are: 29% of children with normal hearing, 36% of mild hearing impairment, 7% of moderate hearing impairment, 14% of severe hearing impairment, and 14% of extremely severe hearing impairment. A study published in the Chinese Medical Journal showed that children with auricular deformities were 20% likely to have the following psychological problems: depression, 37% of interpersonal sensitivity or social disorders, and 26% of hostility or aggression.
As a parent, what should you do if you find that the ear shape of the newborn baby is a bit abrupt and deformed? The author and many parents think that when their children grow up, their ears will naturally grow well. Some of the older generation will also say that more rubbing for children will look good. These are clearly mishandlings.
Pulling and rubbing not only can not make the ear grow back to normal, but also due to external forces, causing secondary distortion of the ear, but also making the child miss the best treatment time.
The correct treatment is to observe for 7 days first, if the auricular deformity does not improve after 7 days, you should promptly visit the department of otolaryngology, accept the guidance and advice of a professional doctor, and choose a suitable non-invasive ear deformity corrector to wear for correction.
Diagram of wearing orthosis丨 References[1]
Non-invasive corrective treatment has been carried out very maturely in the United States and Europe, and about 300,000 cases are treated each year. Since the introduction of this technology into China in 2015, more than 100 hospitals in China have carried out non-invasive correction of congenital ear morphological deformities. The feedback results show that the vast majority of parents are very satisfied with the correction results.
Noninvasive correction effectively and non-invasively corrects more than 90% of pinna morphological deformities. The neonatal ear is plastic, which is an important component of ear cartilage , hyaluronic acid at work. A large number of clinical applications have been proven to be the best at receiving sculpting early after 7 days of life.
Children who begin to receive noninvasive correction at 7 to 15 days of birth have a treatment cycle of 2 to 4 weeks, which is low in difficulty, stable, short in wearing time, and has a high success rate.
If treatment is not started until about 30 days of birth, the cycle may be extended to 4 to 8 weeks, and for some type of ear deformity, the treatment period may have been missed.
Babies born from 3 months to 6 months like the baby in the text need the shortest correction period of 4 to 8 weeks, and babies older than 6 months need a longer cycle, and the cure rate is significantly reduced.
If the time for treatment is missed and the ear deformity is severe, surgery can be performed at about 6 years of age.
Sharing personal experience does not constitute a diagnosis and treatment recommendation, can not replace the doctor's individual judgment of a specific patient, if you need to go to a regular hospital.
bibliography:
Chen Yuqing, Zhang Heng, Zhuang Jielian, Qiu Ting. Observation on the efficacy of non-invasive ear appliances in correcting congenital pinna morphological malformations[J]. Chinese Aesthetic Medicine. 2021; 30(08):45-48.
Source of this article: Fruit Shell Patient
Author: Lin Guolin
Editor-in-Charge: CiCi