The incidence of symptoms consistent with cerebellopontine angle lesions in a general ENT out-patient clinic

To quantify the potential burden for screening for cerebellopontine angle l esions, all adult new patients attending the ENT outpatient department of a district general hospital were documented to see if their presenting sympt om(s) could be consistent with the presence of a cerebellopontine angle les ion. Of the patients, 19.7 per cent were found to be potential candidates f or screening. A 15 decibel asymmetry at one frequency was found in 11.8 per cent of patients. The burden of screening with a variety of audiological a nd symptomatic protocols was quantified. Effective age limits to reduce the burden for screening were found to be either 65 or 75 years of age. With s uch a large potential pool of patients for further investigation, the resul ts of this study could be used to suggest protocols which are likely to pro duce a load of cases, which matches local resources for screening.