I was born deaf in my left ear and two years ago I was diagnosed with an acoustic neuroma in my right ear. It has grown to 8 X 4 X 4 mm from 6 X 4 4 mm in just last six months which it appears that it is now the width of the tube and is now growing lengthwise. My doctor now wants to use radiation which I think is the gamma knife. My symptoms are ringing with every once in a while is a stong ringing that lasts approximately 30 seconds and my hearing which has always been good gradually worsening. My understanding is that surgery carries a high risk of losing hearing along with facial contol. The other which is radiation is either gamma knife or cyberknife. Gamma is a single dose which this site expresses as retaining hearing 50 to 70 %. Everthing I read about cyber is it is several doses over days which have a much better chance of retaining hearing. I am leaning towards the cyberknife but it appears the drawback is that it needs several x-rays which is frowned upon to direct the sessions. I feel that with my loss of left side hearing already that I need to locate a top physician which has been extremely frustrating. I live in New Jersey and the only thing I found to referance is the US News top ENTs which the site is extremely slow. I have found only a few that even specify AN on there personal reports and the nearest are in NY. I have read that Dr. Chang in California is a top phsycian and uses cyberknife. My questions are what should their board certification be, many are different? Is there a way of locating physicians that use cyberknife? Who performs the radiadion procedures, the physician or the technician? If it is the technician how do I locate the top technician? I greatly appreciate any and all advice, Thank you.
