Hearing preservation surgery for vestibular schwannomas via the retrosigmoid transmeatal approach: Surgical tips - Commentary

摘要

A total of 592 consecutive patients underwent surgical removal of unilateral VS between January 1994 and December 2009. The "pearls" related to the surgical techniques are summarized from lessons in hearing preservation surgery learned by the senior authors (T.F. and A.H.F.). The patient's preoperative hearing level is the sole criterion for attempting hearing preservation surgery; the size of the tumor is irrelevant. The hearing level is assessed according to the Sanna/Fukushima classification, which is a modification of Sanna's classification reported in 1995 [22, 25] (Table 1). We attempt hearing preservation surgery in patients with preoperative hearing levels of class A, B, C, or D (pure tone average (PTA) <60 dB and speech discrimination score (SDS) >50 %).