2009/11/19 by S Gimsing, Steen Gimsing
Medicine · Neuroscience · #Ear and Head Tumors #Meningioma and schwannoma management #Vestibular and auditory disorders
paper · doi:10.1017/s0022215109991423
crossref issued 2009/11/19 · crossref published 2009/11/19 · crossref published-online 2009/11/19 · openalex publication_date 2009/11/19 · crossref created 2009/11/27 · crossref published-print 2010/03/01 · crossref deposited 2021/10/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · crossref indexed 2026/07/31 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
OBJECTIVES: (1) To compare audiometric parameters in patients with vestibular schwannoma and in those with asymmetric hearing loss from other causes; and (2) to assess proposed screening criteria by comparing published protocols. METHODS: Audiometric data from 199 vestibular schwannoma patients and 225 non-tumour patients were compared. Eight screening protocols were tested on these 424 patients. RESULTS: Vestibular schwannoma and non-tumour patients with little or no hearing loss in the unaffected ear were inseparable; however, vestibular schwannoma patients with hearing loss in the unaffected ear had greater audiometric asymmetry, compared with non-tumour patients with the same pattern of hearing loss. The sensitivity of screening protocols varied from 73 to 100 per cent; parallelism was observed between sensitivity and screening rate. CONCLUSION: As regards vestibular schwannoma screening protocols, the best compromise between sensitivity and screening rate was offered by a criterion comprising either: (1) > or =20 dB asymmetry at two neighbouring frequencies, or unilateral tinnitus, or (2) > or =15 dB asymmetry at two frequencies between 2 and 8 kHz.