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The lateral approach to acoustic tumors
Author(s) -
Edwaed Maddox H.
Publication year - 1977
Publication title -
the laryngoscope
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.181
H-Index - 148
eISSN - 1531-4995
pISSN - 0023-852X
DOI - 10.1288/00005537-197709000-00017
Subject(s) - cerebellopontine angle , medicine , cerebrospinal fluid leakage , translabyrinthine approach , facial nerve , surgery , hearing loss , acoustic neuroma , audiology , radiology , cerebrospinal fluid , magnetic resonance imaging , pathology
The surgical experience of a decade of acoustic tumor surgery is discussed. This series involves 106 operations. A plea is made to use the “lateral” approach to the cerebellopontine angle which combines the trans‐labyrinthine and retrosinal routes when necessary. The facial nerve is preserved in 88% of the patients using this approach and the mortality rate is only 1 or 2%. The most common complication is cerebrospinal fluid leakage. The posterior, suboccipital approach in acoustic tumors is condemned. Statistics are presented that make the argument of “hearing preservation” by suboccipital surgery academic. Only 11% of the patients in this series of 106 had “good” hearing preoperatively and all of these had normal hearing in the opposite ear.