The experienced physicians in the departments of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery and Neurosurgery at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center have been successfully evaluating and treating patients with acoustic tumors for decades.

We proudly provide a multidisciplinary approach to our care, combining the efforts of our neurotology, neurosurgery, audiology, radiation oncology and neurology teams to ensure our patients have the safest, most advanced and most optimal outcomes.

We also provide comprehensive same day evaluations with multiple team members, and online evaluations when possible.

For more information or to schedule an appointment, please call 614-366-3687 or visit us here. 

Meet our Team

• Category Title

Oliver Adunka, MD, MBA

Dr. Adunka is the director of the Division of Otology, Neurotology and Cranial Base Surgery at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. He’s passionate about all aspects of the ear, including hearing loss, balance disorders, acoustic neuromas and cochlear implants.
Dr. Adunka earned his medical degree from the University of Vienna Medical School in Vienna, Austria. He completed residency training in otolaryngology – head and neck surgery at J.W. Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany and completed a fellowship in neurotology at the University of North Carolina.

Edward Dodson, MD

Dr. Dodson is an otolaryngologist specializing in otology and skull base surgery. He provides medical and surgical care for the ear, treating conditions such as hearing loss, infections and inner ear balance disorders.

Douglas Hardesty, MD

Dr. Hardesty is a board-certified neurosurgeon specializing in skull base surgery, acoustic neuromas, meningiomas and NF2. His clinical interests involve patient quality of life and minimally invasive surgery.

Russell Lonser, MD

Dr. Lonser is a neurosurgeon specializing in the resection of brain, spinal cord, pituitary and brainstem tumors. He also serves as professor and chair of the Ohio State Department of Neurological Surgery at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.

John McGregor, MD

Dr. McGregor is a neurosurgeon specializing in acoustic neuromas and other tumors of the brain. He also specializes in stereotactic radiation therapy and open surgery.

Daniel Prevedello, MD

Dr. Prevedello is a neurosurgeon specializing in skull base surgery, acoustic neuromas, meningiomas and epidermoid tumors at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute. He’s the director of the Skull Base and Pituitary Surgery Programs at the OSUCCC – James and is a pioneer in endoscopic endonasal approach and other minimally invasive techniques for brain tumor removal.
Dr. Prevedello attended medical school at the Universidade Federal do Parana in Curitiba, Brazil, where he also completed neurological surgery residency training at the Hospital Nossa Senhora das Graças. He completed a fellowship in neuroendocrine and pituitary surgery at the University of Virginia and another in skull base and cerebrovascular surgery at the University of Pittsburgh.

Yin Ren, MD, PhD

Dr. Ren is an otolaryngologist specializing in otology, neurotology and skull base surgery at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. His interests include the treatment of hearing loss, chronic ear disease, balance disorders, vestibular schwannomas and other skull base tumors.
Dr. Ren earned his medical degree from a joint program between Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts Institute of Technology and completed PhD studies in medical engineering and medical physics at MIT in 2014. He completed residency training in otolaryngology – head and neck surgery at Harvard/Massachusetts Eye and Ear in 2019 and completed a fellowship in otology, neurotology and skull-base surgery at the University of California, San Diego.

Diagnosed with Acoustic Neuroma in Her 20s, Patient Shares Brain Tumor Journey on TikTok

In 2016, Borah Dawson suddenly began to experience hearing loss and tinnitus. As a healthy 28-year-old with no family history of hearing problems, she chalked it up to a loud rock concert she’d recently attended with her husband.

Then her symptoms started to get worse. She found herself watching TV with closed captioning and struggling to make out words during conversations. After a series of appointments with her primary care and ear, nose and throat (ENT) physicians, an MRI confirmed the presence of a small acoustic neuroma, a rare brain tumor that grows on the hearing and balance nerves between the ear and brain.

In the United States, roughly 2,500 to 3,000 people are diagnosed annually with an acoustic tumor. While these tumors are benign, they can pose a threat to patients when they grow large enough to cause significant hearing loss, balance issues and facial numbness or weakness. In the most severe cases, acoustic neuromas can put so much pressure on the brain stem and cerebellum of the brain that they pose a threat to vital functions for living.

Borah’s treatment options for acoustic neuroma

Acoustic neuroma treatment options fall into three categories: observation, radiation therapy and surgery. Because her tumor wasn’t growing, Dawson was able to avoid more aggressive treatment for four years after her diagnosis.

In June 2020, her annual MRI confirmed her worst fear: The tumor had grown larger, and she needed immediate surgery.

“It was a very surreal, hard moment,” she remembers.

At that time, Dawson was a mother of four young sons. When she wasn’t running her small coffee business, she was cheering on her boys at their sports games. She knew that surgery to remove her acoustic neuroma could result in complications, such as diminished hearing and facial paralysis, that would significantly lower her quality of life.

“When somebody is going to be operating inside your skull, near your brain, you want to have complete trust in that person or team,” Dawson says. But after meeting with several medical teams across Ohio, she says she felt confident selecting a team led by Daniel Prevedello, MD, and Oliver Adunka, MD, at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.

“I really felt once I met both my doctors that I could trust them when it was time to move forward with surgery,” she says.

A team approach

The physicians in the departments of Neurosurgery and Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery at the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center have successfully treated patients with acoustic tumors for decades. By combining forces, Ohio State’s neurotology, neurosurgery, audiology, radiation oncology and neurology teams ensure the safest, most advanced patient care possible using the latest research discoveries.

“Together, we can look at patients’ options from several angles,” Dr. Prevedello says.

Drs. Prevedello and Adunka worked together to use a “middle fossa” surgical approach that removes small acoustic neuromas while maximizing the potential for hearing preservation.

The two surgeons removed the tumor in a carefully choreographed dance that played to their strengths. Dr. Adunka, the otologist on the case, was responsible for drilling into the petrous bone (at the base of the skull) to expose the tumor. Dr. Prevedello, the neurosurgeon, then took the lead in removing the tumor from the brain stem.

Dawson woke up relieved to find that her hearing was completely intact and she had no serious facial nerve complications. Like many patients, though, her journey to recovery wasn’t completely straightforward. A week after surgery, she experienced delayed facial paralysis that lasted more than a month, and severe balance issues required her to relearn how to walk. She remembers the two months after surgery as a whirlwind of medications, appointments and physical therapy sessions.

Fortunately, Dawson made quick progress in physical therapy sessions with a team of vestibular physical therapists. They assured her she would walk unassisted by Christmas, but she was trick-or-treating with her sons without any assistance in October, only two months after surgery. Gradually, she regained the use of her facial muscles.

Recovery and moving forward from acoustic neuroma removal

Dawson and her husband documented every step of her journey on social media. “At first, it was just a way to process everything that we were feeling, and then it started gaining traction with people in a similar position,” she says.

Over time, she’s amassed a large Instagram and TikTok following by sharing her story of recovery and offering helpful tips to acoustic neuroma patients in various stages of treatment.

“I speak to lots of different people from all over the world,” she says. Whether it’s someone who was newly diagnosed with an acoustic neuroma or someone who has lived with the condition for 20 years, she says, everyone can benefit from connecting to people in the same boat.

Dawson still struggles to make out the lyrics at concerts, and she continues to experience some ringing in her ears. Otherwise, though, it’s almost as if she never had a brain tumor.

“I encourage everyone I talk to in the acoustic neuroma community to come to Ohio State,” she says. “I’m so thankful I chose the route I did. I get to live the rest of my life tumor-free. It’s the greatest feeling.”