What is the reason for hearing loss?

  Some patients who feel tinnitus or even hearing loss, often due to old age and other reasons, do not pay attention to it, and gradually find that the ear symptoms worsen, and after cranial CT or MR examination, find the occupancy of the pontocerebellar horn, and further examination and surgical pathology confirm the diagnosis of neurosurgical disease – auditory nerve sheath tumor. Then let’s learn more about this tumor.  Symptoms of auditory neuroma are: 1. Tinnitus as the first symptom, progressive hearing loss on the affected side to deafness 2. Typical pontocerebellar horn lesion syndrome: hearing nerve, facial nerve, trigeminal nerve and posterior group of cranial nerve disorders, cerebellar damage and brainstem compression, i.e., in addition to tinnitus and hearing loss, with the increase of tumor, facial numbness, water choking, swallowing difficulties, hoarseness, etc. may occur.  3, chronic intracranial pressure increase signs: headache, vomiting, optic papillary edema.  The examination of auditory neuroma should be done: 1.Cranial radiography, internal auditory tract phase shows: enlargement of the internal auditory tract and destruction of the rocky spine 2.Cranial computed tomography (CT): isointense or hypointense lesions in the pontocerebellar horn area and obstructive hydrocephalus, enhanced scan lesion enhancement.  3.Cranial magnetic resonance imaging (MRI): T1-weighted image of the pontocerebellar horn area showed low signal or isosignal, T2-weighted image showed high signal occupancy, and enhanced scan showed significant enhancement of the lesion.  4. Cerebral angiography (DSA): It is an invasive test and the localization rate is not as good as CT or MRI, but it can help to understand the blood supply of the tumor and assist in the decision of whether to perform interventional embolization treatment before surgery in order to reduce intraoperative bleeding.  If the diagnosis is clear, posterior sigmoid sinus approach is required for pontocerebellar horn tumor resection.  The most common complications of this procedure are: failure to recover hearing, facial palsy or even numbness of the affected face, and in severe cases, postoperative manifestations of cranial nerve damage in the posterior group (choking on water, dysphagia, hoarseness).