Newly diagnosed.Looking for advice.

[dabek1]

I am 65 years old. A week ago I was diagnosed with a 0.7 cm left acoustic neuroma.
Appointment scheduled for May 12, 2017 at University of Michigan Health.

Looking for advice about the facility and my treatment options.

[ANSydney]

Hi dabek1. Welcome to the club that nobody wants to be a member of, but everyone is nice.

A 0.7 cm tumor is small. Do you have any symptoms other than presumably some hearing loss?

Unless you've got strong symptoms you'll probably be put on wait-and-watch.

How long have you had any symptoms?

[dabek1]

I only have mild hearing loss.Rarely I may have an off-gait,but it does not affect my life(balance) at all.
Thank you.

dabek1

[dabek1]

I forgot to answer your question.
My apologies.
My wife tells me ,she noticed my mild hearing loss for 3 months.

She says, I have upped the volume of the TV, since then.

Thank you.

dabek1

[ANSydney]

Given your age, tumor size and mild symptoms I'd be surprises if you were not managed by observation. I'm not sure what he cutout is considered for intervention (1.5, 2.0, 2.5 cm?).

You've got time and a follow up MRI at 6 months and 1 year will tell you growth rate and change in growth rate.

All the best.

[sharonov]

I tend to agree with AN Sydney.  Thats a little guy.  On the other hand, mine was just a little larger when first diagnosed and I opted for watch-and-wait; my hearing kept deteriorating in the affected ear, and the surgeon who had originally advised w and w told me that it had been discovered that hearing was better preserved if radiation was done right away.  Further research showed that perhaps FSR would be even better at preserving the hearing.

But maybe yours will just stay the same size and your hearing will not get any worse.  If only there were clear answers that applied to everyone!!

[ANSydney]

With regards to hearing preservation, papers differ on whether radiosurgery accelerates the normal decline in hearing. I haven't got the reference to the paper that I rely on, but it states that hearing loss accelerates after radiosurgery.

I visited my neurosurgeon yesterday and he stated that the best way to slow the decline in hearing lass is not to do treatment. Microsurgery will almost certainly result in hearing loss and radiosurgery would accelerate hearing loss.

[ANSydney]

Found the reference to the article I was speaking of: https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/2cef/abe8e8eef1ae32cab8bcf3c71dd75f53387c.pdf

The following quote pretty well says it all:

"In the literature, to our knowledge, there have been no reports of the hearing preservation after 10 years or more after hearing preservation surgery or radiotherapy. In the present study, 95 patients had been observed for 10 years or more. According to the AAO classification, 46% maintained good hearing after 10 years or more compared with 45% using the WRS classification and 75% of patients with 100% speech discrimination at diagnosis."

I think if you look out 2 years it's very different than looking out 10 years.

[dabek1]

Thank you everybody for taking the time in answering my concerns.

Has anybody had any experience with the Univ. Of Michigan Health,ENT department?
I was referred there by my local ENT.

dabek1