Hearing preservation in acoustic neurinoma surgery.
In a series of 120 patients with acoustic neurinoma, hearing preservation at removal of the tumour via the suboccipital approach was attempted in 30 ears. Hearing was preserved in 13 ears (43%), but in two, hearing was lost entirely in 3 to 4 years; thus the success rate was 36%. In 9 of the remaining 11 ears useful speech discrimination was present. Audiological tests showed increased retrocochlear loss after surgery. A surgical team should master the methods of both translabyrinthine and suboccipital surgery in order to choose the best approach for each patient.
D000158:Acoustic Impedance Tests; D001300:Audiometry, Evoked Response; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone; D001302:Audiometry, Speech; D001309:Auditory Threshold; D002150:Caloric Tests; D003056:Cochlear Nerve / Q000293:injuries; D006312:Hearing Loss, Bilateral / Q000517:prevention & control; D006319:Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006801:Humans; D009464:Neuroma, Acoustic / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000601:surgery*; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000517:prevention & control; D012022:Reflex, Acoustic; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed