CARTILAGINOUS BEHAVIOR IN NASAL SURGERY - A COMPARATIVE OBSERVATIONALSTUDY

Cartilaginous autografts, either from the ribs, auricular concha, nasa l septum, or even the alar cartilages, are some of the most widely use d materials in nasal surgery. Nevertheless, no comparative study exist s on these four cartilages in which their physicoelastic properties ar e analyzed based on their histological architecture and their function within the organism. The studies that do exist on structure and class ification of cartilages differ widely. In this study, cartilage specim ens obtained from the nasal septum, rib, auricular pavilion, and alar of 7 fresh cadavers were analyzed. They were subjected to special tinc turing to be able to histologically observe their architecture, cellul arity, intercellular substance, the relationship between cellularity a nd intercellular substance, the primary components of the matrix, and the distribution of fibers. Many similarities were found among the sep tal, costal, and alar cartilages. All three exhibit little cellularity and much intercellular substance. The intercellular substance is made up of homogeneously distributed collagen fibers. Auricular cartilage has many cells and little intercellular substance, being made up of ir regularly distributed elastic fibers. On the basis of these findings, we propose a simpler classification and make recommendations for the u se of these four cartilages in nasal surgery.