INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES To compare the results obtained in the resection of 21 giant vestibular schwannomas via retrosigmoid (RS) and combined retrosigmoid/translabyrinthine (RS/TL) approaches with respect to intra- and postoperative complications, facial nerve preservation and postsurgical sequelae. METHODS This was a retrospective study of 21 patients who underwent a resection of a gian...

Objective: To evaluate the safety and efficacy of removing large acoustic neurinomas (>3 cm) by the retrosigmoid approach. Methods: Large acoustic neurinomas (mean (SD), 4.1 (0.6) cm) were removed from 50 consecutive patients by the retrosigmoid suboccipital approach while monitoring the facial nerve using a facial stimulator-monitor. Excision began with the large extrameatal portion of the tum...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the safety and efficacy of removing large acoustic neurinomas (> or =3 cm) by the retrosigmoid approach. METHODS Large acoustic neurinomas (mean (SD), 4.1 (0.6) cm) were removed from 50 consecutive patients by the retrosigmoid suboccipital approach while monitoring the facial nerve using a facial stimulator-monitor. Excision began with the large extrameatal portion of th...

BACKGROUND Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leakages represent a major complication of skull base surgery. Watertight dural suture is challenging, and different ways to reinforce it have been proposed. Since 6 months, we use locally harvested autologous pericranium graft for dural repair in retrosigmoid approach. METHODS Retrospectively, we analyzed 27 patients operated on with key-hole retrosigmoid...

Hearing conservation in acoustic neuroma surgery via the retrosigmoid approach depends upon a good exposure of the internal auditory canal from behind avoiding labyrinthine injury. The accessibility is influenced largely by the individual characteristics of the temporal bone and the variability of the surgical landmarks is the result of different skull base shapes among different races. The aim...