Ohaegbulam S, Okwunodulu O, Ndubuisi C, Mezue W, Chikani M, Nkwerem S, Ekuma M
Neurosurgery Department, Memfys Hospital for Neurosurgery, Enugu, Nigeria.
Enugu State University Teaching Hospital, Enugu, Nigeria.
Surg Neurol Int. 2017 Aug 1;8:171. doi: 10.4103/sni.sni_100_17. eCollection 2017.
Vestibular schwannoma (VS) is a significant neurosurgical problem hence it enjoys a special attention at conferences and workshops. It accounts for about 8-10% of all intracranial tumors with an annual incidence of about 11-14 per million per year. Most VS are sporadic with 5-10% attributed to neurofibromatosis type 2 (NF2). However, VS is alleged to be rare in Africans and uncommon in African Americans, connoting a racial bias. To our knowledge, no study from sub-Saharan Africa has addressed this subject. The aim of this study is to determine the frequency of VS in a tertiary neurosurgical hospital in sub-Saharan Africa.
This is a retrospective study of all intracranial neoplasms and VS managed in a major tertiary hospital in sub-Saharan Africa from January 2003 to December 2015. Patients' records and neuroimaging studies were reviewed retrospectively. Additionally, database of all cranial computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) done for various indications within the same period was searched retrospectively for "incidental" VS cases.
Over the study period of 13 years, out of 612 cases of intracranial neoplasms, only three (0.49%) were VSs (two sporadic, one bilateral VS in NF2). A search for "incidental" cases of VS from a pool of 7475 cranial scans (CT: 5290; MRI: 2185), yielded none.
The findings strongly suggest that VS is very rare in the study population. It is hoped that other centers in Africa and beyond would perform similar studies.
前庭神经鞘瘤（VS）是一个重要的神经外科问题，因此在会议和研讨会上备受关注。它占所有颅内肿瘤的约8 - 10%，年发病率约为每年每百万人口11 - 14例。大多数VS是散发性的，5 - 10%归因于2型神经纤维瘤病（NF2）。然而，据称VS在非洲人中罕见，在非裔美国人中也不常见，这意味着存在种族偏见。据我们所知，撒哈拉以南非洲地区尚无研究涉及此主题。本研究的目的是确定撒哈拉以南非洲一家三级神经外科医院中VS的发生率。
这是一项对2003年1月至2015年12月在撒哈拉以南非洲一家大型三级医院治疗的所有颅内肿瘤和VS进行的回顾性研究。对患者记录和神经影像学研究进行了回顾性审查。此外，还对同期因各种适应症进行的所有头颅计算机断层扫描（CT）和磁共振成像（MRI）数据库进行了回顾性搜索，以查找“偶发性”VS病例。
在13年的研究期间，612例颅内肿瘤中，只有3例（0.49%）是VS（2例散发性，1例NF2相关的双侧VS）。在7475次头颅扫描（CT：5290次；MRI：2185次）中搜索“偶发性”VS病例，未发现相关病例。
研究结果强烈表明VS在研究人群中非常罕见。希望非洲及其他地区的其他中心能开展类似研究。
