Retrospective Investigation of Contralateral Hearing Thresholds of Patients With Sporadic Vestibular Schwannoma.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE\nThe aim of this study was to investigate the contralateral hearing of patients with sporadic vestibular schwannoma (VS).\n\n\nSTUDY DESIGN\nRetrospective cohort study.\n\n\nSETTING\nPure-tone audiograms of the contralateral ear from patients with a wait-and-scan strategy were compared to the ones who received therapy. Due to a possible bias caused by the therapy, hearing thresholds before and after radiotherapy or surgery were compared separately with the wait-and-scan group.\n\n\nMETHODS\nFrom 1979 to 2017, 508\u2009patients with sporadic VS could be included in the study. Of these, 240 received regular controls in the sense of wait-and-scan, 72 underwent radiotherapy (63 audiograms before and 43 after radiotherapy), and 196 had a surgery (186 audiograms before and 146 after surgery). Age-normalized hearing thresholds of the contralateral ear from patients with a wait-and-scan strategy were compared to ones who received therapy. In addition, hearing thresholds were compared to norm values.\n\n\nRESULTS\nThere was no evidence for a difference in the contralateral hearing of patients with sporadic VS between the wait-and-scan and therapy groups. The mean difference of hearing thresholds in our sample to norm values was found to be larger for the high frequencies and more pronounced in male patients.\n\n\nCONCLUSION\nThere was no evidence for a difference in the contralateral hearing loss of patients with sporadic VS between the wait-and-scan and therapy groups. However, there was some indirect indication of poorer contralateral hearing in all patients with sporadic VS compared to normative values.