THE NEGLECTED SEPTAL CARTILAGE GRAFT: (WITH EXPERIMENTAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE GROWTH OF HUMAN CARTILAGE GRAFTS)

Abstract

Many otolaryngologists and plastic surgeons appear to avoid the use of septal cartilage as a grafting material because of the mistaken impression that it is absorbed after transplantation. This erroneous belief induces the surgeon who is repairing a nose with an old depressed fracture to perform a submucous resection for the purpose of restoring breathing space but to discard the septal cartilage and bone which might be used as grafting material to fill the saddle depression. The patient is then subjected to additional surgical operation for removal of his rib cartilage, or else inferior material, such as preserved cadaveric cartilage, is used to restore the nasal bridge. In many of these cases the septal cartilage removed during the submucous resection would have provided sufficient grafting material for repair of the saddle. The general depreciation of septal cartilage as material for grafting is apparently based on derogatory statements which have been