Acoustic neuroma 4.2cm, 28 years old. Surgery in Loyola University hospital Maywood IL, a Chicago suburb in 2015. Surgeons brain part: Dr. Douglas Anderson, ear part: Dr. John Leonetti. One week from the first exam to the actual surgery. Duration of surgery 12 hours. Four days stay in the hospital. No hearing in the left ear. No facial palsy at all, even after the surgery I woke up and I was able to move my face to smile, which is amazing given the size of the tumor. After one year the part of the tumor that was left to save the facial nerve shrunk from 0.6mm to 0.5mm. There was no radiation. I need to do an MRI after another year to keep track of the growth or shrinkage I hope. I will post again, if someone needs an advise or has a question you can write me. They did a combined approach translab and retrosigmoid because of the size, because there could be an obstruction of the view to the actual tumor. They closed the skull with a paste made from my blood and bone dust collected during the drilling, this is to avoid external metal that can cause headache if the muscles grow back into the screws that they put with the other type of closing, but actually here is a solution to that also, some asterisk look alike screws that do not allow the muscle to grow on them. Also they took a fat graft from my belly to put inside the wound, this is also connected with avoiding pain. They did not use radiation after the surgery, they cut the blood supply of the remaining part so that it can not grow and eventually shrink. I have no pain or chronic pain already a year. My balance was fine from the first day because the tumor was at least 10 years old and the vestibular nerve was already destroyed and my brain was adopted to that already. I had only dizziness for 2 months, but it went away. For the hearing I bought the Soundbite device, it really works, it is amazing, but Sonitus Medical seized operation because of Medicaid and Medicare stopped covering the Soundbite. But I am sure that a Cross hearing aid would help you too, or BAHA of course. There are also other good places in Chicago like Northwestern, Rush, Chicago Ear Institute, I am sure that all the surgeons will take good care of you wherever you go, they all have good intentions and a lot of experience. I suggest you do your searching in the forum, this is how I did mine, I suggest you interview a few surgeons, I suggest you ask about protecting the facial nerve, chances of saving hearing, avoiding post operation headaches, closing. Dr Douglas Anderson has done more than 6000 surgeries in his carrier of which more than 1000 acoustic neuromas with Dr Leonetti for the last 25 years, so that fact should tell you something. There are not enough words in this world in which I can explain my gratitude to Dr Anderson and Dr Leonetti and their team at Loyola hospital. Think about every positive word that you know, that is my opinion for their professionalism and experience and the care that you will receive. I will write again after my next MRI in 2016, if you have any question feel free to write me, be aware also that everybody reacts differently to the interference with that tumor. Good luck and may God be with you!
I will send you MRI images before and after surgery if you want.
