Objective

To examine the frequency of autologous and alloplastic ear reconstructions for patients with microtia in the United States, and describe post-index procedure rates associated with each method.

Design

Retrospective cohort study.

Setting

Claims data from 500 + hospitals from IBM® MarketScan® Commercial and Multi-State Medicaid databases.

Patients/Participants

A total of 649 patients aged 1 to 17 years with International Classification of Diseases, ninth/tenth revision (ICD-9/10) diagnoses for microtia, congenital absence of the ear, or hemifacial microsomia.

Interventions

Alloplastic or autologous ear reconstruction between 2006 and 2018.

Main Outcome Measure

Post-index procedures performed within 1 year following the index repair, analyzed across the study period and separately for each half of the study period (2006-2012, 2012-2018).

Results

A total of 486 (75%) qualifying patients received autologous and 163 (25%) received alloplastic reconstruction. Secondary procedure rates were significantly higher in the autologous group at 90 days (P = .034), 180 days (P < .001), and at 365 days (P < .001). Alloplastic reconstruction accounted for 23.2% of reconstructions in the first half of the study period compared with 26.7% in the second half (P = .319). One-year secondary procedure rates in the autologous group were not significantly different between both halves of the study period (69.7% vs 67.1%, P = .558), but were significantly lower in the second half for the alloplastic group (44.9% vs 20.2%, P = .001).

Conclusions

In these databases, autologous reconstruction is more common than alloplastic reconstruction. Autologous reconstruction is staged, with most undergoing a secondary procedure between 3 months and 1 year postoperatively. Secondary procedure rates decreased over time in patients undergoing alloplastic reconstruction.