L. Cardenascamarena et al., CARTILAGINOUS BEHAVIOR IN NASAL SURGERY - A COMPARATIVE OBSERVATIONALSTUDY, Annals of plastic surgery, 40(1), 1998, pp. 34-38
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.