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The risk of hearing loss in nongrowing, conservatively managed acoustic neuromas
Objective:
To determine the risk of loss of useful hearing in the absence of tumor growth among patients undergoing conventional management of acoustic neuroma.
Setting:
Tertiary referral center.
Study Design:
Retrospective case review.
Patients:
Ten patients (12 ears) were identified having a period of no tumor growth of at least 6 months (19.0+/-12.8 months), and for whom at least two audiograms were available in this period.
Interventions:
None.
Main Outcome Measures:
Loss of useful hearing defined using 70% speech discrimination score (SDS) and 30 dB pure tone average (PTA) (70/30), or 50% SD and 50 dB PTA (50/50) criteria.
Results:
Three of seven (43%) ears with useful hearing using the 70/30 rule and two of eight ears (25%) using the 50/50 rule lost this useful hearing.
Conclusions:
There is a significant risk of useful hearing loss with conservative management of nongrowing acoustic neuromas.