Quality of life in vestibular schwannoma: a comparison of three surgical techniques

Objective Through years, interest in quality of life (QoL) among patients affected by vestibular schwannoma (VS) has increased. The expansion of the indications for endoscopic ear surgery allowed the development of the transcanal transpromontorial surgery (TTS) for VS removal. The objective of the present study was to assess QoL in a cohort of VS patients operated on by translabyrinthine (TL), retrosigmoid (RS) and TTS approach. Methods The study was conducted on 111 patients who underwent surgery for VS between January 2017 and January 2020 at two different institutions. Patients fulfilled three questionnaires during follow-up: Glasgow Benefit Inventory, Depression Anxiety Stress Scales-21 and Penn Acoustic Neuroma Quality-Of-Life. The association between sex, age, date of surgery, tumor size, post-operative facial nerve (FN) function and QoL outcomes was assessed. Results An overall subjective impairment was demonstrated in all groups. Age, Koos staging and FN functions were associated to distinct QoL outcomes. Conclusions QoL decreases in patients surgically treated for VS. The TTS may allow improved scores in many domains, confirming to be a subjectively well-tolerated technique.