The newborn butterfly project: a shortened treatment protocol for ear molding.

Background: Secondary to circulating maternal estrogens, a baby's ear cartilage is unusually plastic during the first few weeks of life, providing an opportunity to correct ear deformities by molding. If molding is initiated during the first days of life with a more rigid molding system than previously described in the literature, the authors hypothesized that treatment time would be reduced and the correction rate would increase.

Methods: An interdisciplinary team identified and assessed all infants born with ear deformities at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center.

The cosmetic Z-plasty: restoring and refining an old technique for neck rejuvenation.

Direct excision of the "turkey neck" skin fold with Z-plasty closure was introduced in the 1970s, but it has fallen out of favor in an era in which much emphasis is placed on minimizing visible scars. Although the newer techniques may effectively improve the aesthetic contour of the neck without leaving visible scars, they may not be optimal for selected patients who want a quick, "no-hassle" correction of their neck contour without changing the overall appearance of their face. We conducted a retrospective study of 50 patients--47 men and 3 women, aged 59 to 80 years (mean: 70)--who had undergone cosmetic Z-plasty performed by the senior author (A.