- The most common condition that we treat
in the skull base is what's
called an acoustic neuroma,
that's a tumor that typically
presents with symptoms
of hearing loss, ringing
noise in the ears,
pressure/fullness, sometimes dizziness.
- Many people, when they're
given that diagnosis,
are very anxious, understandably,
because they're told they
have a tumor in their head.
The goal is to make sure that the
most concerning aspects for
the patient are addressed
and really letting people
take a broader view
of what's going on and really
assess all of their options.
Which generally puts people's
mind at ease a little bit.
- So, an acoustic neuroma will grow
in the internal auditory canal
and then grow out towards the brainstem.
We can deal with these
tumors in one of three ways.
One is do nothing and just watch it,
'cause a lot of these
tumors, at least half of 'em,
probably won't grow
once they're diagnosed.
If a tumor is growing, it's
causing more hearing loss,
causing other symptoms,
such as the facial pain
and those type of things,
or it's a bigger tumor,
then we're gonna recommend treatment.
Either radiation, to control
the growth of the tumor,
or surgery, to go in and remove the tumor.
- The goal of gamma knife radiosurgery,
or one time radiation treatment,
is really to stop tumor growth.
The treatment has a very low
impact on the patient's life.
They don't have to stay in the hospital.
They go home the same day.
And generally is fairly well tolerated.
- The tumor, however, does not go away.
So if somebody is having
significant symptoms
from the tumor then radiation
may not be the best option.
The other option is to remove the tumor
and in doing so our goal
is to remove the tumor
and do it safely,
preserve the facial nerve,
the nerve that controls
the movement of the face,
which we have an excellent
chance of preserving that
in all the tumors that we do, and,
if they have hearing that's useful
and it's a tumor that's favorable
for hearing preservation,
try to preserve the hearing in the ear.
- If you don't have a team,
doing a lot of these tumors,
a lot of their time, patient's
will not have good results.
You can't treat these one a month.
You need somebody who's
doing this every week,
to develop the technical
skills, expertise,
and, most importantly, judgment,
about how to deal with these.
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