Pre- and postoperative hearing thresholds and brainstem responses in patients with acoustic neuroma: follow-up study using the middle fossa approach.

Forty-one patients with acoustic neuromas were operated by the middle fossa route. Postoperative hearing was maintained in 31 percent within 20 dB of preoperative thresholds. The clinical, audiologic, and neurotologic data of these patients are reported. The acoustic evoked brainstem responses had a tendency to normalise within 2 to 6 months following surgery. In individual cases, hearing function was improved.