Clinical Study Complications of Microsurgery of Vestibular Schwannoma

Copyright © 2014 Jan Betka et al.This is an open access article distributed under theCreative CommonsAttribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Background. The aim of this study was to analyze complications of vestibular schwannoma (VS) microsurgery. Material and Methods. A retrospective study was performed in 333 patients with unilateral vestibular schwannoma indicated for surgical treatment between January 1997 and December 2012. Postoperative complications were assessed immediately after VS surgery as well as during outpatient followup. Results. In all 333 patients microsurgical vestibular schwannoma (Koos grade 1: 12, grade 2: 34, grade 3: 62, and grade 4: 225) removal was performed. The main neurological complication was facial nerve dysfunction. The intermediate and poor function (HB III–VI) was observed in 124 cases (45%) immediately after surgery and in 104 cases (33%) on the last followup. We encountered disordered vestibular compensation in 13%, permanent trigeminal nerve dysfunction in 1%, and transient lower cranial nerves (IX–XI) deficit in 6%. Nonneurological complications included CSF leakage in 63 % (lateral/medial variant: 99/1%), headache in 9%, and intracerebral hemorrhage in 5%. We did not encounter any case of meningitis. Conclusions