Abstract
This study was conducted on six patients with sudden deafness who visited our institute during the six year period between April 1996 and 2002, and who were diagnosed to have acoustic neurinoma. All of them complained of tinnitus, five of decreased hearing, one of obstruction sensation of the ear and one of vertigo. Five of them were hospitalized to undergo steroid therapy and PGE1 therapy. An initial audiogram showed a gradually sloping pattern in high-pitched sounds in one patient, a flat pattern in two and a notched pattern in three. As for the steroid therapy, one improved while four showed no benefit at all. Acoustic neurinoma at an early stage, measuring several millimeters in di ameter, is now detectable by improved MRI techniques. The incidence of acoustic neurinoma whose onset is sudden deafness has increased recently, now accounting for 40% of all acoustic neurinoma cases. In addition, to these six patients, we encountered three other patients with acoustic neurinoma who presented with slowly progressing perceptive deafness. Acoustic neurinoma tends to produce a notched hearing pattern more frequently than sudden hearing loss not associated with neurinoma.
