Closure of oroantral fistula using auricular cartilage: a new method to repair an oroantral fistula.

r f p b T any of surgical techniques have been described for the losure of oroantral fistulaes and most of them rely on mobiizing the soft tissue and advancing the resultant flap into he defect. For this reason, conventional techniques such as; imple vestibular mucosal flaps, rotational pedicled palatinal r buccal flaps or palatinal island flaps are used. In addition o these conventional techniques, some others are developed n time such as; otogenous bone grafting techniques, metal laque techniques, using fibrin adhesives, etc. Also, nasal septal cartilage is used for the closure of roantral fistulas and using an auricular cartilage graft can be n alternative. Auricular cartilage is biocompatible, resistant o infection, nonresorbable, easily manipulated, structurally ound, noncarcinogenic, easy to obtain and cost-effective. uricular cartilage do not require vascularisation for the interation of the graft to the recipient site and this characteristic ecreases the failure incidence of the graft. Also, after the haresting of an auricular cartilage, scar or defect formation do ot occur on the donor site. In addition, an auricular cartilage raft treat like a separator barrier between the sinus memrane and the oral mucosa which allows successful healing. ecause of these properties, auricular cartilage is a valuable lternative for the nasal cartilage. Using a cartilage in between he sinus membrane and the oral mucosa maintains ideal healng but the graft must also be supported by soft tissue primary losure. In this case, auricular cartilage graft is used and sup-