AboutDina Q Goldin, Ph.D. Expertise Information and advice for Acoustic Neuroma patients who would like honest patient-to-patient interaction about their symptoms or about treatments and related medical procedures. If you are unsure if your experience is "normal", or are wondering whether your information is complete, feel free to ask.
Experience I am an Acoustic Neuroma patient and the founding editor
of the Acoustic Neuroma Patient Archive (http://www.ANarchive.org).
Expert: Dina Q Goldin, Ph.D. Date: 12/11/2002 Subject: IS SURGURY THE ONLY OPTION?
Question my son was diagnosed with an acoustic neuroma after going for treatemnt for a deviated septum...he had a hearing test and was determined to have normal hearing in his right ear and near normal hearing in his left ear...the tumor is in the left ear and is 2 cm long....we went to see a neuro surgeon who wants to surgically remove the tumor and by doing so said that he would more than likely loose the hearing in his left ear.....i want to know about the gamma knfe or cyber knife option for him..we are from plymouth meeting pennsylvania....he is a pianist...he wants to do what is safe and will at the same time preserve his hearing...this surgeon from university of pennsylvania said that he only treats with surgury.......please offer any information..thank you, rosemary.....we alo have just found the name of a neuro/doctor at thomas jefferson hospital in philadelphia....seems he uses both approaches...surgury and gamma knife.....doctor mc andrews..any advice will be appreciated
Answer We strongly suggest another consultation, this time with Dr. Andrews at TJU. Dr. Andrews is one of the country's leading radiosurgeons, and he is very qualified to determine whether radiosurgery is an option for your son. I do not see any reason why it should not be, so I expect that he will say "yes".
Dr. Andrews offers two kinds of radiosurgery, a single-session treatment (Gamma Knife) and a multi-session treatment (FSR). He has recently published an article comparing outcomes with these two options for his patients at TJU, you can find it in the AN Patient Archive: http://www.ANarchive.org/spread.htm
It turns out that FSR is better than Gamma Knife (and either one is better than than surgery) at preserving hearing.
You may be intersted that I know another musician, a conductor, who is an AN patient and chose FSR (with Dr. Lederman in New York). His story can be found in the AN Patient Archive, too: http://www.ANarchive.org/rony.htm
