Perichondral Hematoma

I was watching a show called the Ultimate Fighter last night, a show that has a bunch of men on 2 teams that compete and then fight to win money and a deal in the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship), and I kept noticing how most of them have huge, grosse looking bulges on their ears; Cauliflower Ear. http://www.spiketv.com/shows/series/ultimatefighter/show.jhtml. I remember the first time I saw cauliflower ear was when I was in highschool and a boy I knew who was on the wrestling team had it. It looks so painful and weird and I was wondering why they don't just get them removed. So, I did some reasearch on cauliflower ear and found out that it isn't that easy to just get rid of it. The technical name for cauliflower ear is perichondral hematoma and it occurs when a sudden blunt trauma to the ear by body parts hitting the ear or by a wrestling mat rubbing and hitting the ear. This happens because the athlete doesn't wear the headgear to protect their ears, partly because headgear is bothersome and in the way. Separation of tissue planes of the ear procedes and the spaces fill with blood from ruptured capillaries. If the ear isn't treated then it turns to scar tissue and calcifies. This irritates the ear and calcium can turn to cancer later on in life. http://longislandwrestling.org/liwa/sportsmedicine/cauliflowerear.htm. The reason people still have cauliflower ear way after their wrestling career is because one reason is that wrestlers are somewhat proud of their cauliflower ear. It shows that they are in a rough sport and proud to be a wrestler and so they don't rush over to get it fixed. Another reason cauliflower ear isn't treated and instead left to calcify is that not all doctors treat it. Infact, many don't. This is suprising since many kids get cauliflower ear even in their first year of wrestling. One doctor I read from said he sees at least 15 wrestlers every season get their ears drained. http://www.bragmanhealth.com/books/sports/ch34.html. The reason a lot of doctors do not treat cauliflower ear is that it takes time. One doctor does a procedure for cauliflower ear he says, "as a labor of love" for the sport that he loves. The procedure goes like this:
1. Needle aspiration of the fluid.2. Infusion of a steroid into the evacuated space ( to further reduce capillary bleeding) for 1 minute.4. Aspiration ( removal ) of steroid.5. Clamping ( to promote hemostasis - to help stop further bleeding ).6. “Casting” of the ear tightly held in place with tape ( to prevent re-accumulation of blood into the space.
The ear is rechecked every 4 days ( until healed ) and the procedure repeated as necessary.
Eventhough this procedure seems long, if I had cauliflower ear I would still definetely get it treated. It looks like a tumor growing out of your ear and even after learning about it it still suprises me that so many wrestlers and fighters keep them on their ears.