Journal of neurosurgery
-
Journal of neurosurgery · Dec 2013
ReviewA comprehensive analysis of hearing preservation after radiosurgery for vestibular schwannoma: clinical article.
Gamma Knife surgery (GKS) has evolved into a practical alternative to open microsurgical resection in the treatment of patients with vestibular schwannoma (VS). Hearing preservation rates in GKS series suggest very favorable outcomes without the possible acute morbidity associated with open microsurgery. To mitigate institutional and practitioner bias, the authors performed an analytical review of the published literature on the GKS treatment of vestibular schwannoma patients. Their aim was to objectively characterize the prognostic factors that contribute to hearing preservation after GKS, as well as methodically summarize the reported literature describing hearing preservation after GKS for VS. ⋯ These data provide a methodical overview of the literature regarding hearing preservation with GKS for VS and a less biased assessment of outcomes than single-institution studies. This objective analysis provides insight into advising patients of hearing preservation rates for GKS treatment of VSs that have been reported, as aggregated in the published literature. Analysis of the data suggests that an overall hearing preservation rate of ~ 51% can be expected approaching 3-4 years after radiosurgical treatment, and the analysis reveals that patients treated with ≤ 13 Gy were more likely to have preserved hearing than patients receiving larger doses of radiation. Furthermore, larger tumors and older patients do not appear to be at any increased risk for hearing loss after GKS for VS than younger patients or patients with smaller tumors.
-
Journal of neurosurgery · Dec 2013
ReviewNon-audiofacial morbidity after Gamma Knife surgery for vestibular schwannoma.
While many studies have been published outlining morbidity following radiosurgical treatment of vestibular schwannomas, significant interpractitioner and institutional variability still exists. For this reason, the authors conducted a systematic review of the literature for non-audiofacial-related morbidity after the treatment of vestibular schwannoma with radiosurgery. ⋯ The results of our review of the literature provide a systematic summary of the published rates of nonaudiofacial morbidity following radiosurgery for vestibular schwannoma.