An Experience of Acoustic Tumor Surgery

Lee, Won Sang; Lee, Ho Ki

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Acoustic tumor which originates from the vestibular nerve is the most common neoplasm to be found at the cerebellopontine angle. The surgical approaches currently used for the acoustic tumor are the middle cranial fossa, the translabyrinthine, the suboccipital, and the combined approaches depending on the size, location, and growth rate of the tumor and the hearing level, age, and general health condition of the patient. This study was performed to evaluate the results of acoustic tumor surgery.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
We reviewed 12 acoustic tumor patients who were operated in the department of otolaryngology of the Severance hospital from June 1991 to December 1994.
RESULTS
We could remove tumors completely except for two cases where the sizes of tumor were large. Postoperative complications were hearing loss, facial paresis, cerebral spinal fluid leakage, and intracranial hemorrhage.
CONCLUSION
From our experience of acoustic tumor surgery, we could suggest the following strategy for patients with acoustic tumor: 1) Hearing preservation surgery has to be chosen in case of the intracanalicular tumor with serviceable hearing: 2) When the tumor extends to the cerebellopontine angle: functional preservation of facial nerve is the prime goal for the patients: and 3) A total removal of tumor without considering the functional preservation is not always the best method of treatment.