More Middle Fossa Questions!

[allegro17]

Hi everyone,

I'm sorry if this is repetetive, but I am wondering if those of you who've had middle foss as a method of attempted  hearing preservation would tell me a bit about your experiences.  How big was your tumor, where did you have it done and with who, what was your outcome like, both immediately post-op and long term in terms of hearing?
I have already lost all hearing on my right due to AN and now have a 2mm AN on the left.  Trying to gauge if early intervention hearing preservation surgery might be more likely to fare better or worse for me in the long term. I have heard anywhere in the range of 30-70% successful hearing preservation rates for this type of sugery. If you did retain hearing after this type of surgery, exactly how "serviceable" was it?

Thanks,

Laura

[Cheryl R]

Laura, I may have told you my story already too.       My last surgery in 2008 was for the "good" side of a 1.4 tumor but had made near near deaf.        I was already deaf on the other side.             Dr Slattery from House had talked at a symposium that they had a rate of around 75% success rate of saving the hearing.          Of course I was nervous if what if I was in that 25% rate of not saving it.  So I waited till was losing it anyway to have my surgery and then would get the cochlear implant.      My hearing did improve.    Not a common happening to have it come back better than it was.     It is not perfect and groups and background noise is still hard for me to talk to others without being right by them and paying close attention.      Talking in a quiet area is fine.   No more captioned tv or phone now either.               I think it took me 5 yrs from time found the AN on the other side till did the surgery.        I go to Univ of Iowa and Dr Bruce Gantz does mid fossa regularly.                    I know it is very hard when there are no perfect answers to this.      I have my next MRI in April and just hope for nothing there.                         
                                                                Cheryl R

[DR]

All the details are below, but my tumor was 12mm x 9mm x 9mm.  I had the MF approach in November and am happy to report my hearing is still intact.  Prior to surgery I had 100% word recognition.  The only noticeable drop was the tell tale "V" around 6kHz of approx. 40db.  Less than a week post op I had a quick hearing test done at House.  My hearing was reduced by 6db across the board, but the 6kHz actually improved by 5-10db.  Word recognition was around 90%.  Now that the fluid is clearing I would guess my hearing is as good as before surgery.  I won't know for sure until next November when I will repeat the hearing exam, but I feel confident that there is no significant loss.

I was told pre-op that there was anywhere from a 50-70% chance of retaining "usable" hearing.  After Dr. Brackmann reviewed one of my tests (I believe it was the ABR) he commented on how good the "waveforms looked."  I'm still not sure what that means, but he correlated it with a better potential outcome.  My guess is that it is related to the tumor location on the nerve, but I'm certain someone here will be able to provide a much more detailed explanation.

I hope this helps!

[jaylogs]

Hey Laura, my story is similar to DR's, only I was at about 65% for word discrimination.  I had tinnitus for about 3 years before that. My tumor was 8mm and was taken out by Drs. Brackmann/Scwartz here this last December.  As soon as I could remember right after the surgery, I still had the head dressing on with the big wad over my AN ear, and I could still here. At my follow-up 8 days later I had better word discrimination than before I went in (about 90%). How serviceable is my hearing...VERY much so (I can listen to my iPod and have perfect clarity in both ears).  I had two doctors tell me I should go with trans-lab (a definite hearing buster there) so I went into this surgery with the mindset that even if I lost my hearing, I really wasn't losing out too much to begin with...just as long as I got that pesky tumor out and kept the facial nerves from being damaged.  Of course, everyone's experiences are different...hope this info helps...if you have any more specific questions, please feel free to ask me in private.  Take care and good luck with whatever you choose to do!
Jay