Research continues

When we returned home to Denmark, I continued to look for answers. We learned from the cranial facial team, August could have ear repair surgery using tissue from his ribs. However, it could not be done until he was 8 or older. Some even suggested to wait until he was approximately 12-13. The surgery would require the surgeon to take cartilage from his ribs to form an ear.
We did not learn too much about the atresia repair. So I wanted to be more informed on that procedure. I also wanted options were the microtia was concerned. Using cartilage was not so exciting to me.
I did a Google search on atresia microtia and found out so much information and that there was help for our son.
Unfortunately, the Danish doctors, told us that they did not have the technology to do the tests that we were told about. It was just best to wait until he was old enough to make decisions on his own, around 18 years of age.
In my research, I found that children with unilateral (one-sided) hearing loss are usually held back in school and suffer in school due to the inability to hear everything the teacher is saying. Especially if he did not get preferred seating to have his good ear to the teacher when at a chalk board, etc.
I also found that many children with atresia microtia can suffer from lesser self confidence and become introverted while in school. Their self esteem is lost due to trying to hide the ear and/or other children giving them a hard time about their appearance, etc.
So I knew that this was not something we could wait on to be fixed until age 18. All his school years would be over and I was not going to take the chance of his studies and self confidence being altered because of his ear.
More things I found out was;
- This is more common in boys than girls
- Averages occurrence is 1 in 6,000 when averaged across all ethnic groups
- 60% of these cases are of the right side and unilateral only (one side not both)
- Atresia can be a symptom of a larger syndrome, such as Treacher Collins,
Crouzon's, Alpert's, Preiffer, Klippel-Feil, BOR (Branchio-Oto-Renal), 18-q
chromosome as well as Hemifacial Microsomia.
- The rib graft surgery would be at least 2-4 surgeries before he would be free of
surgery for a while. (this does not include the microtia repair)
- The costs involved for both surgeries would be approximately $65,000.00
We were lucky that we were only dealing with atresia microtia and not any other symptom. However, the more I learned about the rib graft surgery, I was wanting to find another option.
I was not pleased about putting him through 2-4 surgeries just to reconstruct his ear, knowing he would still need another major surgery on the atresia repair. So I continued my research.