Biomaterial Database

Criteria for hearing preservation in acoustic schwannoma surgery: the concept of useful hearing. 1992

A E Hinton, and R T Ramsden, and R H Lye, and J E Dutton

University Department of Otolaryngology, Manchester Royal Infirmary.

In the quest for hearing preservation in patients with acoustic schwannomas it is essential that surgeons do not lose sight of the concept of 'useful' hearing. There is an important difference between hearing preservation which pleases the surgeon and that which will be appreciated by the patient. Tumour size, pure tone audiogram average differences between ears and speech discrimination scores have been recorded in a series of 114 patients with unilateral acoustic schwannomas. Criteria for useful hearing are presented in terms of pure tone audiogram average difference and speech discrimination scores. There were 11 patients (10 per cent) with a speech discrimination score of 50 per cent or more, a pure tone audiogram average difference of 30 dB or better and a tumour size of no more than 2 cm. Only one patient (0.9 per cent) had a speech discrimination score of 50 per cent or more, a pure tone audiogram average difference of 20 dB or better and a tumour size of no more than 1 cm. It is concluded that hearing preservation techniques may be applicable to between 1 and 10 per cent of patients with unilateral acoustic schwannomas.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D009464	Neuroma, Acoustic	A benign SCHWANNOMA of the eighth cranial nerve (VESTIBULOCOCHLEAR NERVE), mostly arising from the vestibular branch (VESTIBULAR NERVE) during the fifth or sixth decade of life. Clinical manifestations include HEARING LOSS; HEADACHE; VERTIGO; TINNITUS; and FACIAL PAIN. Bilateral acoustic neuromas are associated with NEUROFIBROMATOSIS 2. (From Adams et al., Principles of Neurology, 6th ed, p673)	Acoustic Neuroma,Melanocytic Vestibular Schwannoma,Schwannoma, Acoustic,Schwannoma, Vestibular,Acoustic Neuroma, Cerebellopontine Angle,Acoustic Tumor,Angle Tumor,Cerebellopontine Angle Acoustic Neuroma,Cerebellopontine Angle Tumor,Neurilemmoma, Acoustic,Neurilemoma, Acoustic,Neurinoma of the Acoustic Nerve,Neurinoma, Acoustic,Neuroma, Acoustic, Unilateral,Vestibular Schwannoma,Acoustic Neurilemmoma,Acoustic Neurilemmomas,Acoustic Neurilemoma,Acoustic Neurilemomas,Acoustic Neurinoma,Acoustic Neurinomas,Acoustic Neuromas,Acoustic Schwannoma,Acoustic Schwannomas,Acoustic Tumors,Angle Tumor, Cerebellopontine,Angle Tumors,Angle Tumors, Cerebellopontine,Cerebellopontine Angle Tumors,Melanocytic Vestibular Schwannomas,Neurilemmomas, Acoustic,Neurilemomas, Acoustic,Neurinomas, Acoustic,Neuromas, Acoustic,Schwannoma, Melanocytic Vestibular,Schwannomas, Acoustic,Schwannomas, Melanocytic Vestibular,Schwannomas, Vestibular,Tumor, Acoustic,Tumor, Angle,Tumor, Cerebellopontine Angle,Tumors, Acoustic,Tumors, Angle,Tumors, Cerebellopontine Angle,Vestibular Schwannoma, Melanocytic,Vestibular Schwannomas,Vestibular Schwannomas, Melanocytic
D011183	Postoperative Complications	Pathologic processes that affect patients after a surgical procedure. They may or may not be related to the disease for which the surgery was done, and they may or may not be direct results of the surgery.	Complication, Postoperative,Complications, Postoperative,Postoperative Complication
D006311	Hearing Disorders	Conditions that impair the transmission of auditory impulses and information from the level of the ear to the temporal cortices, including the sensorineural pathways.	Distorted Hearing,Dysacusis,Paracousis,Paracusis,Hearing Disorder,Hearing, Distorted
D006801	Humans	Members of the species Homo sapiens.	Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D001301	Audiometry, Pure-Tone	Measurement of hearing based on the use of pure tones of various frequencies and intensities as auditory stimuli.	Audiometry, Bekesy,Audiometry, Pure Tone,Bekesy Audiometry,Pure-Tone Audiometry
D013067	Speech Perception	The process whereby an utterance is decoded into a representation in terms of linguistic units (sequences of phonetic segments which combine to form lexical and grammatical morphemes).	Speech Discrimination,Discrimination, Speech,Perception, Speech