Tension lines of the auricular cartilage

Utilizing Langer's technique for skin tension lines, we punctured the auricular cartilage of 10 human cadavers and 2 mature rabbits and 24 immature rabbits with a conical awl to determine their tension lines. Deformation of the holes into straight lines indicated the direction of maximum tension. A regular pattern was observed in adult rabbits and humans: Tension was at right angles to the long axis at the auricular base and parallel at the apex. This pattern was not present at birth, but developed at 1 to 2 weeks of age in rabbits. It is felt that these tension lines are responsible for the clinical results of auricular reconstruction. In children less than 1 week of age, tension lines are disorganized so that nonsurgical correction will be successful as long as hypoplasia is not present. In older children, correction will be successful when the deformity is parallel to the tension lines.