Acoustic neuroma
Steve C
I just spent an hour on the phone with a friend of mine who mentioned
tinnitus and dizziness to me 3 months ago. I told him he absolutely
needed to have an MRI done, see and ENT, and a neurologist.
Thankfully, he took my advice. He has been informed he has an acoustic
neuroma of 4mm on the 7th and 8th nerve.
He saw 4 different surgeons. Two want to operate now, two say to wait 3
months and take another MRI.
From what I found on Otology Online, these a progressive growths likely
being 2-4 yrs in the making. This would coincide with th dizziness that
was occassional 4 years ago, he stated.
With acoustic neuromas are operation - if possible - always mandatory?
Is this a very invasive type of surgery, or can this be dealt with
through small incisions and micro surgery.
Any comments for my friend would be very much appreciated.
Geez, I'm glad I just have T now.
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WandQueen
Hello -
My understanding regarding acoustic neuromas (or, according to current
lingo, "vestibular schwannomas") are that they are virtually all benign
and slow-growing. As far as I know, surgery is the only treatment
currently available. One can put off surgery for some time; however,
dizziness and pain resulting from nerve impingement by the tumor are
generally motivators in this direction. I believe the surgical incisions
used are fairly small.
The main long term effect I'm aware of is a rather certain loss of hearing
in the ear bearing the tumor. Even with the fancy gamma-knife treatments
used in some major cities, it is pretty much a given that scar tissue will
develop within a year or two after surgery, impairing myelinization of the
nerve and causing an irreversible (and probably significant) hearing loss.
Blech! :-(
Amy
Steve C
>>Would you be able to post the web-site addresses for your info as I would
be
interested in reading more on this topic.<<
I just checked at at 2:30 am the day I did it, I forgot to mark the site
in a bookmark, sorry.
Do a search on the Net. I found numerous sites. I believe I started with
Otology Online.
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Malcolm Cambridge
In article <33509B...@ix.netcom.com>, stev...@ix.netcom.com says...
>
>Thank you Amy. That seems to be the info I'm reading on the net.
>--
Would you be able to post the web-site addresses for your info as I would be
interested in reading more on this topic.
Thanks,
Malcolm.