Audiological outcome for hearing preservation surgery in acoustic neuroma: the need of agreement in reporting results

Abstract

Purpose: Early diagnosis in acoustic neuroma (AN) has increased the prevalence of small tumors with good hearing. Otoneurological centres have increasingly aimed to preserve hearing function. The managementoptions of small ANs range from observation to active treatments (surgery, radiotherapy). No firm agreement has been made on which is the best option for audiological function preservation. Nowadays, no definitive guidelines are present in order to suggest a standard way of evaluating and comparing the hearing quality. The lack of a universally agreed hearing classification leads to the impossibility of comparing data from different centres or different therapeutic options.

Method: The paper wantst o show, analyzing our surgical experience in hearing preservation surgery for ANs, the different results that are demonstrable by just using different hearing classification.

Results: About the 13 patients considered ‘in protocol’ who underwent HPS, 69% are considered to have ‘good’ hearing after surgery using the Tokyo or Sanna classifications; with the AAO-HNS or the GR classifications the outcome of ‘good’ hearing preservation was 77% and in 87% with the WRS classification.

Conclusion: A shared hearing classification is potentially the solution in order to facilitate comparison of functional outcomes across different centres or different treatment modalities.

Keywords:

• Vestibular schwannoma
• hearing preservation
• acoustic neuroma
• hearing classification

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.