Permanent change in shape of cartilage by morselization.

THE NEED to develop an effective technique for the permanent alteration of the shape of cartilage is apparent to all of us who do reconstructive surgery. Gibson and Davis, 1 in a study on the behavior pattern of costal cartilage, showed the presence of interlocking stresses in human costal cartilage in a state of balance, with the outer layer in a state of tension and the inner layer in a state of compression. They also correlated the stress pattern and the cellular arrangement in costal cartilage, demonstrating ways of preventing warping by using balanced cross sections to shape the graft, changing the relationship of these forces upon the cartilage. Frye 2 showed that thin cartilage as well as cartilage with better cell differentiation, as determined by the arrangement of the cells in the cartilage, tends to deform more readily when acted upon by an outside force. He demonstrated distortion of