Expert: Dina Q Goldin, Ph.D. - 3/18/2009

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
There are specialists both in UK and in Singapore for treating this kind of problem. Given the small size of the tumor and the fact that you will need to travel for treatment, I recommend "Gamma Knife", which is a one-day non-invasive treatment. Rather than removing the tumor, it kills it with very precisely aimed radiation. You can go to the Gamma Knife web site to find specialists in either UK or Singapore.