Expert: Dina Q Goldin, Ph.D. - 2/6/2009

Question
My wife, 50yo, has been suffering from headaches, progressive hearing loss, pulsatile tinnitus and a sensation of pressure in the ear, all on the RH side.
This has been diagnosed as Eustation tube disfunction (a grommet was no help), MS, stroke, etc etc.
Finally, a recent MRI and CT scan revealed "a small lobulated enhancing lesion in the second turn of the right cochlea, may represent a small intracochlear schwannoma. The differential diagnosis is focal form labyrinthitis.
Follow-up study is recommended."
We are at present in Thailand but we would like to know if there are specialists either in the UK or in Singapore to whom we could turn for advice and possibly treatment.

Answer
It certainly sounds like an acoustic neuroma (vestibular schwannoma).  There are specialists both in UK and Singapore!  If you go to the site of locations for Gamma Knife (the safest and least invasive treatment for small Acoustic Neuromas), you will find them there.  The link to this site, as well as a list of some specific Acoustic Neuroma specialists in the UK and Singapore, can be found in the Acoustic Neuroma Archive (www.ANarchive.org).