Did anyone have "near normal" hearing in their AN ear before treatment?

[lawmama]

I had my first ENT appt today and they did a hearing test.  They said my hearing is still "near normal" on my AN side.  Does this have any bearing on my potential for hearing preservation post-treatment?  I guess what I am really asking if this makes it more likely that I might have some hearing after treatment.  (Of course, I know there are no guarantees)  Anyone else experience this?

My primary symptom is dizziness and vertigo.  I am already heavily leaning towards microsurgery, if that matters. 

[amymeri]

My hearing was completely normal pre surgery.  As in, 100% pass with flying colors the lengthy audiology evaluation  I had the week before my surgery. I had no dizziness, no tinnitus, no symptoms until my chiin and cheek went numb on my affected side.

My tumor (largish at 4cm) was not within the Inner Auditory Canal but was almost completely out of the canal and this is why I think I had good hearing preservation before my diagnosis.

I think having good hearing is more common than it would seem logical but I am sure many will chime in here saying they had good hearing.  I think it really depends on the size and location of your tumor as well as the treatment options you have to see if you can preserve good function.  I wish you luck!

Of course with a tumor that big I only had a surgical option and I have no hearing on the AN side now, but I have adapted okay.  Every case is so individual it is hard to say what will happen with you.

Good luck!!!!  

[ppearl214]

Prior to my treatment (CK), my hearing test showed my AN ear at 96% serviceable hearing (higher in my non-AN ear).

3-1/2 yrs later post-treatment, I still have approx 96% serviceable hearing in my AN ear.

As we know, "individual results may vary".  The belief is, in my case, since I had "fractionated" radiation, it gave lower daily dose of radiation in an effort to save my hearing (saving my hearing was my personal goal... hearing loss was not a symptom of mine when I had my AN diagnosed).

others will chime in as well.

Phyl

[epc1970]

I had 98% normal hearing pre surgery. It was so good that my surgeon was convinced I had a menigioma instead of an AN. Post surgery my hearing is worse (I have not had an audiology test post op) but I can still near from that ear-I can still pass the finger rubbing test. I can remember at my pre op consultation that my surgeon was really usure if I would retain my hearing or not-we both agreed that preservation of my facial nerve was proirity #1!
Good luck making your treatment decision....in some ways, I think I was lucky in that surgery was  the only choice I had because I did not have to worry if I was making the right choice-it was hard enough picking a surgeon!
Erin

[Adrienne]

The way my neurosurgeon explained it to me is that the better your hearing is before surgery (if surgery is your treatment choice, obviously), the more you have to lose but the better off you'll be if you do retain. (the more you have to lose is a reference only to the fact that if you have great hearing, you'll notice the loss more.  If you don't have much left, you're likely not to be 'as' affected by losing some)

The statistics he gave me were with Retrosigmoid approach-I had a 25% chance of retaining any hearing)  Of those patients that do retain hearing, they lose 20-30% of what was left.  So if you had 100% to start with, you may end up with 70% left after surgery if you are one of the ones that get to keep any at all.  If you only had 40% to start with and lose an additional 30% of that, you wouldn't have much hearing left).

Hope that makes sense!?

Adrienne

[lawmama]

Interesting.  Thanks, all.   

[amymeri]

Erin!

I am so amazed and interested to hear that you retained your hearing with a large AN and retrosigmoid approach.  That's terrific.  I had a largish AN also and my surgeons, both of whom had lots of AN experience, told me there would be basically NO CHANCE that I would save my hearing.

Wow, so interesting (and cool for you!)

Makes me feel bummed that my facial nerve AND my hearing were affected so much.  <sigh>

[epc1970]

Amy
I really have no idea how that happened cause frankly I had zero expectations of having hearing left at all. My surgeon and I had not even put that on the list of priorities for my surgery. I do know that my tumor was not very far into the IAC and had not caused any of the charateristic eroision of the IAC-really know idea what that is-which is why my surgeon was convinced I had a menigioma instead of an AN. My hearing ability seems to chage from day to day but most days I can still hear it if I rub my fingers together next to my AN ear. I know that immediatly post op my surgeon was fairly convinced I would have hearing in that ear and he was right on!
Erin

[mk]

Oddly enough, sometimes larger ANs are the ones that do not cause hearing loss, possibly because they are located mostly in the CPA instead of the IAC. When I was diagnosed I didn't have any hearing loss that I could tell. I did suffer a couple of episodes of complete hearing loss afterwards, which were resolved by steroids.

As a general rule (although really there are no rules when it comes to ANs), the better hearing you have going into treatment, the better the chances to retain some of it. This seems to be true for both radiation and surgery (the hearing preservation methods). I had GK and up to now I have preserved most of the hearing, and all word recognition (hopefully tomorrow's ENT test will confirm this). I remember quite a few others on the forum who went into GK/CK with very good hearing, and have preserved it. But it should also be noted that based on statistics hearing can diminish over the long term, even if preserved initially.

Marianna

[lori67]

I had what my audiologist referred to as "super-human" hearing before my surgery.  I had translab, so I don't have it in my AN ear anymore.  I decided to sacrifice the hearing in an attempt to save my facial nerve.

It's definitely think I had a harder time adjusting to the sudden loss than I might have had if I'd lost some of my hearing gradually, but I did eventually adjust.  Fortunately, I still have the super-human hearing in the other ear!   
Lori

[leapyrtwins]

Law -

if you choose to go the surgical route (as opposed to radiation), the mid-fossa approach (if it's a possibility for you) is your best chance of saving your hearing.  I say "if it's a possibility" because it depends on the location of your AN.  Also, not all docs do the mid-fossa approach.

After mid-fossa, your next best chance is with the retrosigmoid approach.  Some say that this approach exposes you to a greater chance of facial nerve damage, but that's not true in all cases.  I had retrosigmoid - ended up SSD, but no facial nerve damage.

Translab approach the majority of the time means the patient automatically ends up SSD.

I had diminished hearing in my AN ear prior to surgery with very good word recognition, which is why I took a gamble on retrosigmoid.  I figured if my hearing could be saved - great; if it couldn't, at least we could say we tried.  I lose that gamble - but I'm still comfortable with my choice.  Nothing ventured, nothing gained IMO.

Jan

[Brendalu]

I had perfect hearing before.  The only symptoms I had were balance and dizziness.  The docs wanted to save my facial nerve, so Trans Lab was the approach.  I wasn't given any other choice.  I should have found this site before the surgery!!  Sudden loss of hearing is very difficult to adjust too, or it has been for me.  All I can say is research, research, research and get more than one opinion.  Good luck and I will be keeping you in my thoughts and prayers.
Brenda

[CHD63]

The more I am reading of people's experiences and from my own research, the more I am convinced that the amount of hearing left post-treatment is directly related to the location of the tumor, how much hearing was still there pre-treatment, and skills of the surgeon and/or radiation oncologist.

With that many variables, I do not think any of us can say what is the "best" way.  IMO seeking out the most experienced medical professionals we can find is vitally important.

We know the translab approach always results in total hearing loss.  However, there are no guarantees with hearing or facial nerve preservation with either middle fossa or retrosigmoid.  Too much depends upon the tumor itself and the expertise of your physician.

My signature below tells my situation.  Although it has taken some adjustments and I will never have the same quality of hearing I had before, the digital hearing aid I use is very adequate for normal conversation.  Other threads will give more on the problems many of us have in noisy environments (restaurants, etc.).

Clarice

[ombrerose4]

I had normal hearing on my AN side before surgery,or so they thought. After surgery the dr. told me that while they were monitoring they saw that I had a 2 minute hearing delay on the AN side. Post surgery I have SSD, but I am grateful that at this point that is my worst problem. I am looking forward to a Baha sometime in the future. Good luck.

[opp2]

I have fairly normal hearing, voice discrimination is good. I think (and someone mentioned it in another post somewhere) I have a lot of interference with tinnitus noise. With the position of my AN I find one of my side effects is if I stand up too quickly or rise after sitting for a long while, my head begins to pound or pulse. The AN side ear will seem to close open close open and then it's like its full of water or cotton. But just for the few minutes until the pounding subsides. This leads me to believe (very unscientific here) that my an is on the artery and when I stand or begin to move the increased pressure causes this effect. Postural hypotension et al...

silly me, rambling again...

I'm going to work, have a great day y'all.