[Therapeutic effect analysis of non-invasive ear moldings on correcting congenital auricular deformity in 435 ears]

Objective:To evaluate the therapeutic effect of non-invasive ear moldings on correcting congenital auricular deformity of infants. Methods:A total of 435 ears with congenital auricular deformity were treated in the department of Otorhinolaryngology of Chengdu Women and Children's Central Hospital from December 2019 to July 2023. The infants were divided into 3 groups according to the initial treatment age, i. e. , 0-30 days（group A, n=106, 175 ears）, 31-90 days（group B, n=124, 202 ears） and ≥91 days（group C, n=37, 58 ears）. All infants were corrected with Chinese ear moldings. The efficacy, complication rate and treatment duration were compared among the three groups, and the treatments of different types of auricle deformity was analyzed. Results:Through comparison of three groups, the results showed that the markedly effective and cured rate of group A was the highest, and group C was the lowest. The difference was statistically significant（P=0.008）. Specially, there was a significant decrease of after 5 months in Group C. There was no significant difference in the complication rate among the three groups（P=0.232）, and the occurrence of complications has no significant impact on treatment. Group C has the longest treatment duration and group A has the shortest. The difference was statistically significant（P<0.001）. Conclusion:Congenital auricle deformity should be early detected and intervened. The younger the age of children, the better efficacy and shorter treatment duration can be acquired. Children under 5 months still will receive a good treatment. Nevertheless, for children older than 5 months, corrective treatment may also be considered. The efficacy for malformations was significantly lower than that of deformations. The number of cases, efficacy and complication rate for different types of deformations were significantly different.