Retroauricular skin: a flaps bank for ear reconstruction

The retroauricular skin may be considered a flaps bank for ear reconstruction. It offers in fact a great variety of island flaps that are suitable for every kind of loss of substance of the ear, have a safe vascularisation, skin of similar colour and texture, are easy to harvest under local anaesthesia on an outpatient basis and cause no relevant morbidity at the donor site. Location and size of the defects lead the choice between the different types of RIFs.