[Widened retrolabyrinthine approach: application to the surgery of acoustic neuroma]

For a long time, the role of the widened retrolabyrinthine approach (WRLA) in surgery of the posterior fossa was restricted to functional surgery of the erebellopontine angle (CPA). The widening technique described makes it possible to adapt it to surgery for the exeresis of APC tumors, irrespective of their histological nature. We have used this approach to treat 19 neurinomas of the VIII and 11 other lesions. The results obtained in the preservation of facial function and hearing match those recorded with more traditional approaches, such as the translabyrinthine and suboccipital retrosigmoid approaches. By its modularity in the access space, it is the multi-purpose approach for the CPA. In our therapeutic armamentorium, given its possibilities to preserve hearing, it has taken the place of the less flexible and more dangerous suboccipital approach.