Tinnitus Acoustic Neuroma Explained
Tinnitus Acoustic Neuroma
What is tinnitus acoustic neuroma and how does it affect you?
When you first go to the doctor with ear problems and tinnitus the first thing that will be done is a hearing test. This is to determine if you have any hearing loss.
The second thing will normally be having an MRI test run.
This is used to find out if your tinnitus is caused by acoustic neuroma. The condition is often referred to as “Vestibular Schwannomas” and it involves non-malignant growths that appear on the “eight cranial nerve”.
This is the nerve that leads from the inner ear to the brain.
In order to understand tinnitus acoustic neuroma, you need to understand what kind of effect these growths can have on this cranial nerve. This nerve is composed of two different parts and it’s located near the facial nerve.
One part carries sound to the brain and the other carries balance. They pass through a very small bony canal that is referred to as the internal auditory canal. This is the canal in which the growths will begin to grow when a person is suffering from acoustic neuroma.
These growths are not cancerous and they grow very slowly over a number of years. They don’t spread to other parts of the ear but they can continue to grow in size. When they grow big enough, they will begin to reach outside of this canal and they can press against the brain. This of course, can become a very serious problem.
The symptoms associated with this condition are tinnitus, dizziness and hearing loss. When the condition becomes severe tingling, facial numbness, headaches, mental confusion and clumsiness can occur. As you can see, this can be a very serious condition but luckily, it‘s very rare.
There are three methods of treating tinnitus acoustic neuroma. First, your health care provider will keep a close eye on the condition to look for any changes. Microsurgery can be performed to remove some or all of the growth in hopes of preserving the hearing if it continues to get worse. Radiation is a non-invasive treatment that is also used for small and medium growths. The radiation, if done precisely, will stop the growths while doing little damage to the nerves thus, preserving the hearing in many cases.
* image courtesy of Northwestern University
