Cochlear implantation in inner ear schwannoma patients
Reviewed by Hassan Mohammed

Inner ear schwannomas (IES) are rare. Patients with IES tend to lose their hearing. Surgery is a treatment option, but it leads to complete loss of hearing. Other treatment options include stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) and watchful waiting (WW). The authors included patients with IES who underwent cochlear implantation (CI) over a seven-year period. Only NF2 patients were excluded. Surgeons tried to minimise modular injury during resection. A total of 12 patients with IES (six surgical resection, four observation and two SRS) who underwent CI were included. Eight of them had intracochlear tumours. Patients in the WW group were 29 years older on average than those who underwent surgery. Both groups achieved roughly similar outcomes in terms of speech discrimination scores, with more variation in the surgical group. However, patients who underwent SRS scored less. Authors concluded that patients with sporadic IES who undergo CI with or without tumour resection perform comparably to the general cochlear implant patient population. They also commented that SRS targeting is more complex after cochlear implantation, but still feasible. CI appears to be a reasonable option, if available, in patients with unilateral IES. Surgery in these patients does not seem to exclude the possibility of a CI.

Cochlear Implantation Outcomes in Patients With Sporadic Inner Ear Schwannomas With and Without Simultaneous Tumor Resection.
Nassiri AM, Staricha K, Neff BA, et al.
OTOL NEUROTOL
2024;45(9):1051–4.