What are the usual symptoms of an auditory neuroma?

  Auditory neuroma is a common benign intracranial tumor located in the pontocerebellar horn region, accounting for about 8-10% of intracranial tumors. It is most common in adults, with peak incidence between 30 and 50 years old, and is mostly unilateral. Patients mostly have deafness, tinnitus and vertigo as the first symptoms. Although auditory neuroma is a benign tumor, it can be life-threatening or cause severe cranio-cerebral dysfunction if allowed to grow because of its intracranial location. If the following symptoms occur, you should be alert to the occurrence of auditory neuroma.  1. Tinnitus and hearing loss are the most common symptoms, most of them are hearing loss in one ear, some patients show sudden deafness or gradual hearing loss. Patients with hearing impairment around middle age should think of auditory nerve sheath tumor if there is no other cause, such as trauma or otitis media, and should go to hospital as early as possible.  2. Abnormalities of vagus function such as vertigo and unstable walking.  3, Occipital discomfort of frontal and occipital pain, aggravated by position change or sudden head turn.  4.Trigeminal nerve symptoms such as head and facial pain, numbness or abnormal sensation.  5.Facial nerve symptoms are manifested as asymmetrical eye fissures on both sides, one large and one small, crooked corners of the mouth, incomplete eyelid closure and other facial palsy symptoms or facial muscle spasm symptoms.  6.Late stage shows symptoms of increased intracranial pressure: such as severe headache, vomiting, optic papilla edema, hoarseness, difficulty in swallowing, choking and coughing when the tumor compresses the posterior group of cranial nerves.  Auditory neuroma is benign tumor, if it can be operated before it causes serious hearing damage and facial paralysis, the effect is good, so early diagnosis becomes the key. For patients with unexplained unilateral tinnitus and progressive hearing loss, audiological and cranial imaging is required. Patients can be diagnosed with auditory neuroma after MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) of the internal auditory tract or CT.  Microsurgery is currently the best option for the treatment of auditory neuroma, which can remove the entire tumor while preserving the facial and auditory nerve function as much as possible. If the tumor is >3cm in diameter or has intracranial hypertension, surgery is the only way to remove the tumor. Microsurgery is preferred for small auditory neuromas, and gamma knife treatment can also be considered, but at a slightly higher cost. The aim of the latter is to stop the tumor from growing, but there are problems of incomplete treatment and radioactive brain edema, and it is more difficult to preserve facial nerve function after irradiation and then surgery. So far, it is still not found that eating a certain food or medicine can make the tumor shrink or disappear.