DELAYED HEARING-LOSS AFTER MICROVASCULAR DECOMPRESSION OF THE TRIGEMINAL NERVE

Objective: The development of sudden postoperative hearing loss as a c omplication of microvascular decompression (MVD) operations in the cer ebellopontine angle has already been reported. A sudden hearing loss o f vascular origin may also occur hours or days after such operations, but even in such cases an improvement of hearing over the following we eks is possible. Here we report on a gradual deterioration of hearing over a period of two weeks after MVD which has not been described in t he literature up to now. Clinical Presentation: A MVD operation was pe rformed twice on a 36 year old patient with trigeminal neuralgia. Afte r the second operation the patient developed a slight hearing impairme nt 3 days postoperatively which increased over a period of two weeks a nd ended up with total deafness. The course of intra-operative brainst em auditory evoked potentials and postoperative audiograms is document ed. Conclusion: Because of gradual development of the delayed hearing loss, we conclude that postoperative tissue scarring may be the underl ying pathology.