Facial nerve monitoring in acoustic tumor surgery

Anatomic and functional preservation of the facial nerve during acoustic tumor surgery remains a primary goal. Intraoperative electromyographic facial nerve monitoring with auditory feedback has enabled the surgeon to more readily achieve this goal. We compared a group of monitored translabyrinthine acoustic tumor removals (N = 89) to a similar unmonitored group (N = 155) in regard to facial nerve function. Function was assessed immediately postoperatively, at time of discharge, and at 1 year postoperatively using the House six-point scale. Results were grouped as satisfactory, intermediate, or poor and were analyzed by tumor size. Facial nerve results were better at all time intervals in the monitored groups, although the difference was not statistically significant at the 1-year interval. There was no difference between monitored and unmonitored patients in the subgroups with tumors smaller than 2.5 cm in diameter. This study supports the usefulness of intraoperative facial nerve monitoring in improving facial nerve results, particularly in larger tumors.