Long-Term Hearing Outcomes of NiTiBOND versus SMart Nitinol Prostheses in Stapes Surgery-A Retrospective Cohort Study.

BACKGROUND: Perform a statistical analysis of the long-term hearing results for 2 groups after stapedotomy using different heat-memory stapes prostheses. METHODS: A retrospective study of 42 patients who underwent stapedotomy using either NiTiBOND (n=25) or SMart Nitinol (n=17) thermal shape memory prostheses. Statistical differences were assessed with univariate and multivariate analysis. Success was defined as a postoperative air-bone gap (ABG) ≤ 10 dB. A Pvalue < .05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: The audiological outcomes were measured at an average of 7.3 and 13.4 years postoperatively for NiTiBOND and Nitinol, respectively. The postoperative ABG was a mean of 5.18 ± 5.59 dB and 4.71 ± 5.02 dB; no statistically significant difference was observed between the groups. Three patients achieving >10 dB postoperative ABG underwent high-resolution computed tomography, but none showed noticeable pathological changes. CONCLUSION: The study demonstrated excellent audiological outcomes with both prostheses and appears to be stable in the long term.