The problem
Ear and nose reconstructions are performed by highly skilled reconstructive surgeons who use a patient's own rib cartilage, and carves it by hand, like a sculptor, to achieve the final ear/nose framework.
This process:
This process:
- Is highly prone to error and variability between surgeons and even patients of the same surgeon
- Is with limited room for revision due to a finite amount of substrate rib cartilage harvested as part of the operation
- Has high cosmetic and functional implications for suboptimal implications.
- Is time-consuming (increasing procedural cost)
- Requires highly specialized surgical skills, making patient access to this procedure limited
Our insights:
- Consistency of ear and nose shapes across patients supports a simplified and more automated carving process.
- Inefficiency in cartilage carving increases costs across multiple surgical parameters. Speeding up this process generates value for not only the patient, but the healthcare system.
- Optimal results every time in a standardized manner ensures that all patients can receive functionally and cosmetically appealing results.
- The hand-carving step precludes other trained surgeons from performing this procedure in medically underserved regions.
Our solution: AuryzoN
The AuryzoN Process
- Costal cartilage is harvested by standard surgical technique.
- The cartilage is thinned to specified measurements using the DimensioN device, which also increases the effective amount of cartilage multiple-fold, by creating even-plane cuts of the original substrate.
- The thinned cartilage is placed on a guide cassette in the AuryzoN device, and subsequently cut by the specific cutter cassette suited for the size of the desired ear.
- The cut shapes are then assembled into the auricular superstructure using metal sutures and other fixation materials.
- The completed construct may then be implanted in the surgical bed using standard technique.