Correlation of vestibular schwannoma tumor with facial nerve weakness, hypoesthesia of face, and disequilibrium

Introduction: Vestibular schwannoma is the most common lesion in the cerebellopontine angle. Some of the most common symptoms arise as the tumor grows bigger such as disequilibrium, hypoesthesia of the face, and facial nerve paresis. Based on the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS) and the Consensus Meeting on Systems for Reporting Results in Acoustic Neuroma, there is still no clarity of a single method used to measure the tumor itself. Methods: This was a retrospective study to analyze the correlation between the size (anteroposterior and mediolateral) of the vestibular schwannoma with disequilibrium, hypoesthesia of the face, and facial nerve paresis among the patients in the Neurosurgery Department of Hasan Sadikin Hospital Bandung from January 2014 to December 2019. The data was analyzed using Spearman and Binary Logistic Regression. Results: A total of 58 patients were included in this study with median age was 43 years, ranging from 21 – 72 years. The most common symptoms were disequilibrium (48.27%), followed by facial nerve paresis (39.65%) and hypoesthesia of face (20.68%). The mean anteroposterior size was 3.8 ± 1.17 cm and the mean mediolateral size was 3.0 ± 1.01 cm. There were significant correlation between disequilibrium with anteroposterior size (r = 0.385; p = 0.003) and mediolateral size (r = 0.409; p = 0.001). There were also significant correlation between facial nerve paresis with anteroposterior size (r = 0.458; p= 0.000) and mediolateral size (r = 0.321, p = 0.014). Conclusion: There were significant correlations between the anteroposterior and mediolateral size of the tumor with the occurrence of disequilibrium and facial nerve paresis in patients with vestibular schwannoma.