Interrelations between the involvement of individual branchiogenic components in microtia

On the basis of cephalometric, roentgencephalometric, tomographic, and somatoscopic studies of 81 adult males with unilateral microtia, investigations were carried out into the interrelation between the degree of involvement of the outer and middle ear and of the face; between the degree of mutual involvement of individual facial structures; and between the malformation of these structures and the degree of outer and middle ear anomalies. A significant relationship between the extent of damage to the main branchiogenic components (outer ear-middle ear-face) was found exclusively in individuals with highly severe or with very slight involvement. Therefore, the correlation coefficients were not characteristic for the predominant majority of our patients and their values were influenced by the frequency of marginal variants of the anomaly within the series. The calculations of the correlation coefficients for the whole variation range of the anomaly thus were meaningless. This knowledge could have general repercussions. Slight interrelations among the degrees of damage of certain facial structures showed at the same time the individual variability of facial configuration within this group of anomalies. Our findings were in good agreement with the experimentally documented hypothesis on the hematogenic origin of branchiogenic malformations and with the assumption based on this hypothesis. Facial asymmetry represents an important prognostic sign for the assessment of the extent of middle ear damage.