Removal and Repositioning of a Piston Wire Prosthesis That Entered the Vestibule Secondary to Trauma in a Patient Who Underwent Stapedotomy

Otosclerosis is a common cause of adult-onset hearing impairment, and stapedotomy is often performed as surgical treatment. Several studies have reported the complications of stapedotomy surgery; piston wire prosthesis (PWP) disruption or dislocation secondary to indirect force attributable to head trauma is described in many patients. Most PWPs that get displaced are slanted or are completely dislodged from the stapedotomy site and lodged within the middle ear. PWP dislocation into the vestibule is extremely rare. A 65-year-old woman who was involved in a traffic accident underwent computed tomography, which revealed a right-sided PWP in the vestibule. Two weeks after the accident, we observed conductive hearing loss associated with a large air-bone gap (ABG, 47 dB) accompanied by spontaneous nystagmus directed to the right without any change in nystagmus following changes in head or body position. She underwent endoscopic exploratory tympanotomy under general anesthesia, 23 days after the injury. We gently pulled the PWP from the vestibule and repositioned it at its original site with a length of 5.2 mm on the long process of the incus. Pure tone audiometry performed 8 months postoperatively showed a decrease in the ABG from 47 to 10 dB without any complications.