Preservation of hearing in acoustic tumor surgery: audiologic indicators.

Preservation of hearing in patients with acoustic nerve tumors can be a goal when tumor size is small and residual hearing is intact. Overall success rates for preservation have been reported to be 20% to 40%. The overall success rate in this series is 30.7%. However, indicators of intact auditory brain stem response (waves I-III-V), good speech discrimination score, and intact acoustic (stapedial) reflex were associated with a 68.2% rate of success. Thus, a comprehensive audiologic evaluation is a guideline for selecting and counselling patients with acoustic tumors before hearing preservation procedures.