and malpositioned upon the head — as it did in the original, uncorrected deformity. The otoplastic technique most effective for lobular repositioning is the Gosain technique (or a variant), wherein the surgeon cuts the skin on the medial surface of the earlobe, and, in suturing it closed, takes a bite of the conchal undersurface to pull the earlobe towards the head. Another prominent-earlobe correction technique is suturing the helical-cartilage tail to the concha, yet, because the tail of the helix does not extend much into the lobule, setting it back does not reliably correct the set back of the earlobe proper; other techniques involve skin excision and sutures, between the fibrofatty tissue of the lobule and the tissues of the neck. Alteration of the position of the auricular upper pole Depending upon the pre-surgical degree of prominence of the upper-third of the pinna, the surgical creation of the antihelical fold might be inadequate to fully correct the position of the helical rim, near the root of the helix. Types of otoplastic correction Ear augmentation, addressing microtia (underdeveloped pinna) and Anotia (absent pinna) involves adding structural elements to replace the missing structures. The cartilage tissue grafts for such extensive reconstructions usually are harvested either from the ear (auricular cartilage) or from the rib cage (costal cartilage). Ear pinback — An otopexy that "flattens" protuberant ears against the head (), wherein the surgeon makes an incision to the natural crease behind (retroauricular sulcus) the external ear, and cuts a small tunnel along the front of the poorly folded antihelix. Once the cartilage is loosened, the concha (bowl) is moved closer to the head, after removing the excess skin and cartilage from the ear rim, and is sutured to reshape the antihelical fold, to balance the ear lobe (lobule) with the proportions of the pinna. The corrected ear then is emplaced and sutured closer to the head. Surgical ear pinback can be performed upon an anesthetized patient (local or general anesthesia), and usually is performed as an outpatient procedure that allows the patient to convalesce at home. The post-operative bruising and swelling usually subside within two weeks, and the narrow, surgical scars are hidden in the posterior skin folds of the ear; yet the outcome is not fully noticeable until the swelling and bruising have gone. Historically, otopexy dates from 1881, when Edward Talbott Ely first performed ear pinback plastic surgery at the