As part of the Hitachi High-Tech America Inspire STEM Education Outreach Programme in the UK, a successful STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education pilot has seen over 5000 students from 80 schools given the opportunity to use scanning electron microscopes (SEMs) for their own experiments. The collaborative project allowed students to design, propose, and execute experiments to give them hands-on experience with scientific research. Feedback from the project has been resoundingly positive, with many students gaining new skills and an interest in STEM, and it looks set to grow further to allow more students access to high-level scientific equipment.

Background: The cause of ossicular prosthesis extrusion remains an issue of interest to many otologists. This study evaluated the change in material surfaces and chemical elements of extruded total ossicular replacement prostheses (TORPs) and partial ossicular replacement prostheses (PORPs).

Methods: A total of nine extruded Polycel® ossicular prostheses (four TORPs, five PORPs) from nine patients was investigated using scanning electron microscope and energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDX). Three prostheses (TORPs) obtained during revision surgery for hearing restoration were used as control subjects for EDX study.

Results: All subjects from the study group showed loss of fibrous capsule at both platform and shaft in the extruded prostheses. In comparison with the control group, the extruded prostheses had a lower level of carbon element (Wilcoxon signed-rank test, p < 0.05).

Conclusion: Loss of fibrous capsule and micro-degradation are probably two of the many factors that contribute to the extrusion of ossicular prostheses.