[The enlarged trans-labyrinthine approach of House. The use of this method in the surgical treatment of cerebello-pontine angle tumours (author's transl)].

The authors report a series of 43 cases of cerebello-pontine angle tumours operated by an oto-neuro-surgical team. The approaches used were, once the supra-petrous approach, twice the posterior fossa, 12 times a combined trans-labyrinthine and posterior fossa approach, and 28 times the enlarged trans-labyrinthine route. This last approach, which is now being used exclusively for the last two years, is described in detail. Forty-three tumours operated on broke down into 40 neurinomas, 2 meningiomas and 1 malignant melanoma. The size of the tumours varied from 1 cm to 11 cm in diameter. Overall statistics show 9.3% of deaths and 65% of functioning facial nerves. The statistics for the nelarged trans-labyrinthine route (the last 28 cases) are: 10.7% of deaths and 75% of functioning facial nerves. In the enlarged trans-labyrinthine route, there is no complication and no mortality in the small and medium-sized tumours, i.e. up to 4 cm in diameter.