# Comparison Between Titanium and Thermally Activated Prostheses in Stages Surgery
## 3 Results
### Bone Conduction (BC)  
A similar pattern was observed for BC. There was a significant improvement in BC after surgery (\(\beta\) = 2.62, \(p\) = 0.0007) but no significant difference between the MatriX and NiTiBOND prosthesis groups (\(\beta\) = \(-\)0.71, \(p\) = 0.672). The interaction between time and prosthesis type was also not significant (\(\beta\) = 0.03, \(p\) = 0.979), suggesting that the degree of improvement in BC did not vary significantly based on the type of prosthesis used. Results are shown in Figures 6 and 7. Figure 5: Pre- and postoperative AC across frequencies in NiTiBOND group. The vertical axis represents the hearing level in decibels (dB). Figure 6: Pre- and postoperative BC across frequencies in MatriX group. The vertical axis represents the hearing level in decibels (dB). Air-Bone Gap (ABG)  
For ABG, a significant improvement was observed postoperatively (\(\beta=17.35\), \(p<0.001\)) but, again, no significant difference between prosthesis types was found (\(\beta=-2.41\times 10^{-14}\), \(p=1.000\)). The interaction between time and prosthesis type was not significant (\(\beta=1.46\), \(p=0.355\)), indicating that the improvement in ABG did not significantly differ between the two prosthesis groups as shown in Figures 8 and 9. Figure 8: Pre- and postoperative ABG across frequencies in MatriX group. The vertical axis represents the hearing level in decibels (dB). Figure 7: Pre- and postoperative frequencies in NiTiBOND group. The vertical axis represents the hearing level in decibels (dB). The median postoperative AC across all frequencies was 30.0 dB (23.8-37.5 dB) and was not significantly different between the groups. For patients with the Matrix prosthesis, the median AC was 31.2 dB (25.0-37.5 dB) and, for those with the NiTiBOND prosthesis, it was 29.4 dB (23.8-37.5 dB) (Figure 10). Postoperative hearing tests performed one day and six weeks after the surgery showed a median BC across all frequencies of 23.8 dB (17.5-32.5 dB) on the first day after surgery and 17.5 dB (13.8-25.0 dB) after six weeks. The median value of the difference between preoperative and postoperative BC after six weeks was 2.5 dB (0-5.6 dB), with patients  
Figure 10: Comparison of average AC between two groups pre- and post-surgery between two groups (MatrixX and NiTiBOND). Figure 9: Pre- and postoperative ABG across frequencies in NiTiBOND group. The vertical axis represents the hearing level in decibels (dB). receiving the MatriX prosthesis showing a change of 1.2 dB (\(-\)1.2-7.5 dB) and those with the NiTiBOND prosthesis showing a change of 2.5 dB (0-5.0 dB) (\(p\) = 0.951) (Figure 11). Furthermore, we compared hearing abilities in high tones between the two prostheses when measured before and after surgery. The preoperative BC at high frequencies (4 kHz) had a median value of 30.0 dB (20.0-40.0 dB) and was not statistically significant between the groups (Median (MatriX) = 35.0 dB (20.0-50.0 dB)/Median (NiTiBOND) = 25.0 dB (20.0-40.0 dB)). The postoperative median BC at 4 kHz was 30.0 dB (20.0-42.5 dB) and did not differ significantly between the groups (Median (MatriX) = 30.0 dB (20.0-50.0 dB)/Median (NiTiBOND) = 30.0 dB (20.0-40.0 dB)). Lastly, we compared the two groups in terms of average ABG, overclosure, and closure of the ABG across all observed frequencies. For all 155 patients, the median postoperative ABG was 10.0 dB (7.5-13.8 dB), with the MatriX group having a median ABG of 11.2 dB (7.5-13.8 dB) and the NiTiBOND group having a median ABG of 10.0 dB (7.5-13.8 dB) (Figure 12). The median overclosure for all patients was 1.7 dB (\(-\)1.7-5.0 dB), with the MatriX group showing a median overclosure of 1.7 dB (\(-\)1.7-6.7 dB) and the NiTiBOND group showing a median overclosure of 1.7 dB (\(-\)1.7-4.6 dB). The mean closure of the ABG for all patients was 16.3 \(\pm\) 9.4 dB, with the MatriX group having a mean closure of 15.7 \(\pm\) 9.2 dB and the NiTiBOND group having a mean closure of 16.8 \(\pm\) 9.6 dB.