Auditory and facial nerve function following surgery for cerebellopontine angle meningiomas

Objective: To investigate the postoperative auditory and facial nerve function results after cerebellopontine angle meningioma removal. Design: Retrospective chart review. Setting: Tertiary care referral center. Patients: Twenty-one patients undergoing surgical removal of cerebellopontine angle meningiomas by the senior author (R.J.W.). Interventions: Translabyrinthine or retrosigmoid approach for tumor extirpation. Main Outcome Measures: Postoperative auditory (pure-tone average and speech discrimination score) and facial (House-Brackmann scale) function within 1 year of follow-up. Results: Twenty-three operations were performed on 21 patients. Hearing preservation through the retrosigmoid approach was attempted in 11 patients (48%). Normal hearing (class A) was preserved in 9 of 10 patients. Normal postoperative facial nerve function (House-Brackmann grade I) was conserved in 11 (65%) of 17 patients. Conclusions: This review demonstrates that successful hearing preservation is possible with meningiomas. Therefore, the retrosigmoid approach should be used whenever serviceable hearing is present preoperatively. Normal facial nerve function can also be preserved in the majority of patients.