What Researchers Did
Doctors reviewed the records of children who had large facial skin and cartilage grafts reattached after injury, combined with hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
What They Found
This retrospective case series reviewed 9 children (average age 8.4 years, range 1.6 to 15.1) with ear or nose defects, most caused by dog bites (7 of 9 cases). Three children had ear amputations, all of which were reattached, and six had nasal avulsions of varying degrees, of which three were reattached and three underwent secondary reconstruction using composite ear grafts. Hyperbaric oxygen was started immediately after surgery and continued for 8 to 10 days. All grafts survived at least 80%, with no postoperative complications, and at an average follow-up of 30.1 months (range 0.8 to 63.9) all patients had good cosmetic results with minimal residual deformity.
What This Means for Canadian Patients
For children needing reattachment of a large chondrocutaneous graft after facial trauma such as ear or nose amputation, this case series indicates that immediate postoperative hyperbaric oxygen can increase graft survival. The authors note that even when the graft does not fully succeed, this approach does not rule out later secondary reconstruction. This is a small case series without a comparison group, so it does not establish how much benefit HBO adds.
Canadian Relevance
No direct Canadian connection identified.
Study Limitations
This is a small, retrospective case series of 9 patients with no control group, so it cannot show how much of the graft survival was due to hyperbaric oxygen versus the surgery itself.