THE RETROSIGMOID APPROACH TO ACOUSTIC NEURINOMAS - TECHNICAL, STRATEGIC, AND FUTURE CONCEPTS

The retrosigmoid approach continues to be the most widely employed str ategy for the surgical resection of acoustic neuromas. The results wit h respect to facial nerve function are uniformly reported to be quite high. The great emphasis currently is upon improving results with rega rd to the conservation of useful hearing. This paper focuses on the an atomical and strategic surgical factors that we currently consider to be important to maximizing our current results. The future aspects of this trend toward improved success in conserving hearing in these pati ents is also discussed.