1993 Volume 86 Issue 4 Pages 483-487
A 46-year-old woman complained of discomfort of the left side of her tongue. Six months later, she complained of a subjective loss of speech discrimination on the left side, but hearing loss was not seen on a pure-tone audiogram. One year later, a C-P angle tumor was found by MRI and a dip of 500 Hz was seen on her audiogram. At that time, she complained of numbness around the left corner of her mouth and discomfort of the left side of her face. However, the internal acoustic meatus was not enlarged on plain craniograms or a CT scan. During the course of her illness, the woman did not complain of tinnitus, and nystagmus was not observed either through Frenzel's glasses or by electronystagmography.
We conclude that, although there was no tumor in the internal acoustic meatus, the brain stem may have been compressed by the tumor with cyst formation, thereby causing such atypical symptoms and clinical course.
This case emphasizes 'the importance of recognizing the neurological relationship between hearing loss and other cranial nerve symptoms.
