HEARING RESULTS AFTER POSTERIOR-FOSSA VESTIBULAR NEURECTOMY

The effect of posterior fossa vestibular neurectomy on postoperative h earing levels of 172 patients was studied at 1 week, 1 month, 1 year, and 18 to 24 months, According to the 1985 American Academy of Otolary ngology-Head and Neck Surgery guidelines for reporting treatment outco me, 66% of patients had improved or unchanged hearing at 18 to 24 mont hs, One-week postoperative hearing was poorer than at 1 month or later follow-up. Permanent profound hearing loss occurred in 4.7% of patien ts. In patients who had worse than 80 dB pure-tone average and 20% spe ech discrimination score hearing loss before surgery, 68% improved abo ve this hearing level, and 16% improved to better than 50 dB pure-tone average and 50% speech discrimination after surgery, This suggests th at it may be worthwhile to preserve the cochlear nerve in certain pati ents who may otherwise be candidates for labyrinthectomy, These hearin g results are comparable with other treatment modalities including end olymphatic sac surgery.