Teflon-wire piston or stainless-steel bucket stapes prosthesis: does it make a difference?

The goal of this study was to determine whether postoperative (implantation of a stapes prosthesis) hearing gain and the amount of air-bone gap overclosure are more improved with the Teflon-wire piston or with the stainless-steel bucket prosthesis. We retrospectively reviewed the outcomes of 82 surgeries that had been performed by the primary author; 41 of these patients had received a Fisch Teflon-wire piston, and 41 had received a Bailey-modified Robinson stainless-steel bucket prosthesis. The mean hearing gain for the patients who received the Teflon-wire piston was 23.3 dB after primary stapes surgery and 20.5 dB after revision surgery. Patients who received the stainless-steel bucket prosthesis experienced a mean hearing gain of 20.7 and 20.3 dB, respectively. Following primary stapes surgery, the air-bone gap overclosure was 4.4 dB with the Teflon-wire piston and 5.2 dB with the stainless-steel bucket prosthesis. There was no statistically significant difference in either hearing gain or air-bone gap overclosure between the two prostheses.