Acustic Neurinoma

The purpose of this paper is to study acoustic neuroma diagnostic process, describe tumor's molecular basis and its magnetic resonance imaging characterization, which is considered to be the gold standard diagnostic tool to study this disease.

A 60-year-old woman experienced a severe spatial disorientation after sudden interruption of the right vestibulocochlear nerve (on removal of an acustic neurinoma). She saw her husband approaching to her bed upside-down. This "reversal of vision metamorphopsia" resolved after a few hours.

This article describes three cases of acustic neurinoma in which both clinical examination and audiovestibular investigations raised strong suspicions of acustic neurinoma but no tumours could be demonstrated by CT. Magnetic resonance scanning employing gadolinium-DTPA revealed small intrameatal acustic neurinomas in all three cases. Attention is drawn to the fact that magnetic resonance scanning provides a new diagnostic possibility for acustic neurinoma and is a valuable supplement to the established diagnostic procedures in suspected acustic neurinoma even although CT reveals normal anatomical conditions in the internal auditory meatus...

The author examined 506 operated upon patients for unilateral neurinoma of the acustical nerve of a different size. The content of the protein in the CSF was in a direct correlation with the size of the tumor and degree of involvement into the pathological process of the vessels in the brain structures, adjacent to the tumor. A disturbance in the permeability of the CSF spaces was determined by the size of the tumor node.

In 3 patients with predominant symptoms of communicating hydrocephalus more investigations led to the diagnosis of neurinoma at the cerebellar-pontine angle. Possible causes of CSF circulatory disturbances will be discussed.