title: [Posterior cranial fossa tumours as a cause of sudden hearing deterioration and/or vertigo].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The aim of the work was to analyse sudden deterioration of hearing and/or vertigo occurrence as an early symptom of posterior cranial fossa tumours.
  
  
  METHODS
  Among 1.394 people who reported vertigo and hearing impairment and were hospitalised at the Department of Otolaryngology and Laryngological Oncology Military Teaching Hospital in Lodz within the years of 2007-2010 twenty-seven patients were analysed. This group included 19 women aged 20-80 (mean age 45.7 years) and 8 men aged 25-73 (mean age 54.0 years) who had posterior cranial fossa tumours diagnosed on the basis of MRI. Each patient underwent a detailed interview, otorhinolaryngological and otoneurological examinations, pure tone, speech and impedance audiometry, suprathreshold tests (SISI, TDT), tinnitus pitch and frequency evaluation, auditory brainstem response (ABR), complete videonystagmography.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The studied material revealed: acoustic neuroma in 15 patients, cerebellar meningioma in 5 patients, cerebellar cyst in 4 patients and cerebellar angioma in 3 patients. Sudden vertigo was present in 27 patients, including mixed-type vertigo in 15 cases and central vertigo in 12 cases. In 19 patients dizziness was accompanied by tinnitus. In 22 patients hearing disorders were diagnosed in a form of: sensorineural hearing loss in 14 subjects, bilateral in 7 subjects, left-lateral in 5 subjects and right-lateral in 2 subjects respectively, as well as deafness in 8 patients, including left ear deafness in 5 cases, right ear deafness in 1 case and bilateral deafness in 2 cases (7.4%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The early phase diagnosis of a posterior cranial fossa tumour as a cause of sudden hearing deterioration and/or vertigo is very seldom and often accidental because GPs, also otolaryngologists, who follow routine and economy, are not used to referring given patients for complete and objective audiological, otoneurological and imaging diagnostics.
authors: Klinika Otolaryngologii i Onkologii Laryngologicznej II Katedry Otolaryngologii UM w Łodzi.
authors: Hanna
authors: H
authors: Zielińska-Bliżniewska
authors: Joanna
authors: J
authors: Michalska
authors: Piotr
authors: P
authors: Pietkiewicz
authors: Jarosław
authors: J
authors: Miłoński
authors: Krzysztof
authors: K
authors: Kuśmierczyk
authors: Jurek
authors: J
authors: Olszewski
mesh_terms: D000158:Acoustic Impedance Tests / Q000379:methods; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001309:Auditory Threshold; D002551:Cerebral Ventricle Neoplasms / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis; D003388:Cranial Fossa, Posterior / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006319:Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011044:Poland; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D014012:Tinnitus / Q000209:etiology; D014717:Vertigo / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D055815:Young Adult