title: Are facial nerve outcomes worse following surgery for cystic vestibular schwannoma?
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study sought to determine explicitly whether postsurgical facial nerve outcomes for patients with a cystic component to a vestibular schwannoma were significantly different from those with a solid tumor.
  
  
  METHODS
  Seventy patients who underwent translabyrinthine surgery for a cystic vestibular schwannoma between May 1981 and the present, and who had complete records in our database, were identified. These were compared with a group of patients with solid tumors matched to the study group on the following parameters: House-Brackmann grade at presentation, tumor size, surgical approach, age.
  
  
  METHODS
  Regional tertiary referral center.
  
  
  METHODS
  Adult patients with vestibular schwannomas.
  
  
  METHODS
  House-Brackmann score 2 years following surgery.
  
  
  RESULTS
  No significant difference was found between the two groups.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The perceived difference in outcomes between cystic and solid vestibular schwannomas cannot be demonstrated when confounding factors such as tumor size are taken into account.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Otolaryngology and Audiology, Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Stephen E M
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.forename: David M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Baguley
authors.forename: David A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Moffat