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Quality of life in vestibular schwannoma: a comparison of three surgical techniques

  • Otology
  • Published:
European Archives of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Objective

Through years, interest in quality of life (QoL) among patients affected by vestibular schwannoma (VS) has increased. The expansion of the indications for endoscopic ear surgery allowed the development of the transcanal transpromontorial surgery (TTS) for VS removal. The objective of the present study was to assess QoL in a cohort of VS patients operated on by translabyrinthine (TL), retrosigmoid (RS) and TTS approach.

Methods

The study was conducted on 111 patients who underwent surgery for VS between January 2017 and January 2020 at two different institutions. Patients fulfilled three questionnaires during follow-up: Glasgow Benefit Inventory, Depression Anxiety Stress Scales-21 and Penn Acoustic Neuroma Quality-Of-Life. The association between sex, age, date of surgery, tumor size, post-operative facial nerve (FN) function and QoL outcomes was assessed.

Results

An overall subjective impairment was demonstrated in all groups. Age, Koos staging and FN functions were associated to distinct QoL outcomes.

Conclusions

QoL decreases in patients surgically treated for VS. The TTS may allow improved scores in many domains, confirming to be a subjectively well-tolerated technique.

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Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

DL, CF, RC, SDG, and FC: data collection; DL and CF: manuscript drafting and statistical analysis; DMo, MAC, DMa, and LP: supervision and manuscript critical revision.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to C. Fabbris.

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The authors have no conflict of interest, funding or financial relationships.

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An informed consent has been obtained for any procedure involving the patients described in this article. The manuscript has not been submitted to more than one journal for simultaneous consideration. The manuscript has not been published previously (partly or in full).

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Lucidi, D., Fabbris, C., Cerullo, R. et al. Quality of life in vestibular schwannoma: a comparison of three surgical techniques. Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol 279, 1795–1803 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-021-06855-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-021-06855-w

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