Retrosigmoid surgery vs. Gamma Knife

[amurgatroyd]

I was diagnosed with an acoustic neuroma a year ago. I have been offered both the Retrosigmoid surgical approach and the Gama Knife radio surgery approach. I am hoping to learn what others think the best approach may be for me given my circumstances, and what the pros and cons are for each procedure.

I am a 64 year old, but fit and in good health. I recently ran a half marathon. My acoustic neuroma measures 0.3 x 1.1 x 0.3 cm, which makes it small and under the 3cm standard where both approaches are possible.

I had a recent growth of the tumor, twice the normal growth, in a 7 month period. My symptoms are significant, but "serviceable" right sided hearing. I do get episodes of dizziness about 1 or 2 twice a month.

Thanks so much,

Anthony

[v357139]

Hi amurgatroyd welcome. 

Try to educate yourself on the pros and cons.  Here are some.  With highly experienced teams, both have high success rates.  Some people just want it out, and so surgery is a good route for them.  Others want to avoid the complications of surgery, and so they choose radiosurgery.  Radiosurgery can take up to 2 years to work and may not be indicated for fast growing tumors. There is no right/wrong answer.  There is what is best for you.

It's very, very important to talk to highly experienced teams with good track records.  Talk to a surgeon about surgery, and a radiosurgeon about radiosurgery.  I talked to several of each.  Some other surgeons may also offer a different surgical approach such as translab.  In my experience that comes down to what they are most comfortable with more than anything.  They key is to talk to those who have done hundreds of either surgery or radiosurgery.

Also how many millimeters is the twice the normal?  Hoping to hear from you.

[Mark F.]

The best approach is very personal.   Research it and make the decision that you are most comfortable with, and then don't second guess it or allow others to change your mind.  You will know what is the best option for you once you have all the information.

[DanFouratt]

Hello Anthony,

Welcome here and I am glad you reach out.  I was in your shoes several years ago, deciding what to do.  In that period I did a lot of research and spoke to people across the country.  I quite (close enough to retirement) my job and focused fully on this for well over a month.  My wife said I was obsessed, I thought I was just being complete, engineering complete.  I put what I call a decision matrix together.   My goal was to organized everything I was hearing about my options.  I updated it a year ago.  My goal is to help others as I was helped by this group. Please message me with your email and I will share it.  I am not a doctor but a simple engineer who needed to organize what he was hearing. I updated it a year ago and plan to work on it again in the next couple of months.  If you want this please message me with your email and I will share.  Last time I posted my email it was eradicate, however it does exist in other threads.

Mark F and I have posted on many threads.  He went surgery  and I went radiation.  We were both right.  And he is right make the decision that is best for you.

Good Luck on your journey,

Dan