SURGICAL PERSPECTIVES OF ENDOSCOPY OF THE CEREBELLOPONTINE ANGLE

Owing to distal light and a panoramic view, the endoscope expands the view inside the cerebellopontine angle without touching the cerebellum or the brain stem and allows clear identification of the vascular and nervous components crossing the cerebellopontine angle. Using a retro sigmoid approach with a combined surgical and endoscopic procedure, th e surgeon gets more accurate information to visualize the adjacent str uctures to a small acoustic neuroma, to check the lateral part of the internal auditory canal, and to locate a vasculonervous cross-conflict . In the future, an endoscopic vestibular neurotomy or an endoscopic m icrovascular decompression seems to be a possible approach.