Presurgical electrophysiological findings in acoustic nerve tumours.
The clinical involvement of the facial nerve is a rare finding among the initial symptoms of acoustic neurinomas. However, compression of the facial nerve is a common intraoperative finding. Blink reflex was recorded in 20 patients affected by cerebellar-pontine angle tumor confirmed at surgery. Recordings were also made of the M-response of the facial nerve from the naso-labial folds. In 6 cases jaw reflex was also recorded. In summary, these electrophysiological studies revealed a facial nerve damage in 13 and a trigeminal nerve dysfunction in 2 out of 18 clinically unaffected patients. The combined study of the 3 tests proved to be useful when the blink reflex showed an isolated R1 delay, that is, in cases in which the level of damage along the trigemino-facial reflex arc cannot be defined by the recording of the blink reflex alone.
Pavesi
G
G
Institute of Neurology, University of Parma.
Macaluso
G M
GM
Tinchelli
S
S
Medici
D
D
Ventura
P
P
Mancia
D
D
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001767:Blinking / Q000502:physiology*; D002648:Child; D004576:Electromyography; D004594:Electrophysiology; D005154:Facial Nerve / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008406:Masseter Muscle / Q000294:innervation / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009431:Neural Conduction / Q000502:physiology; D009464:Neuroma, Acoustic / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011930:Reaction Time; D012018:Reflex / Q000502:physiology*