Abstract
The shape of an audiogram provides highly useful informations for diagnosing patients with hearing loss. However, any specific audiometric patterns of acoustic neuromas have rarely been described. We investigated the audiometric patterns of 105 patients with acoustic neuroma.
The most frequent audiometric pattern in acoustic neuromas was high-tone hearing loss, followed by mid-tone hearing loss. When we reclassified the patterns by the hearing difference compared to the contralateral ear, mid-tone hearing loss became the most frequent pattern. In sudden-onset hearing loss patients, mid-tone hearing loss was the most common pattern. However, all totally deaf patients complained of gradually progressive hearing loss. Increase in the mid-tone hearing level, especially in sudden-onset hearing loss patients, may be specific in acoustic neuromas. There was no correlation between the audiometric patterns and tumor size, but the condition of the fundus of the internal auditory canal related to total deafness in acoustic neuroma.
Understanding the characteristic audiometric pattern of the acoustic neuromas is important to diagnose this disease correctly.
