Quality of life after microsurgery for vestibular schwannoma via the middle cranial fossa approach.

The aim of this study was to analyse the quality of life (QOL) of patients who had undergone microsurgery for vestibular schwannomas (VS). A questionnaire was sent to 117 consecutive patients who had been operated on using the middle cranial fossa (MCF) approach between October 2005 and June 2011. The response rate was 91/117 (78%) of which 86 were suitable for analysis. The questionnaire consisted of the Short Form-36 (SF-36) Health Survey including a self-designed, disease-specific section. Demographic data, tumour size, hearing status and facial nerve function were extracted from our VS database. Patients scored significantly lower in seven of the eight subscales of the SF-36 compared to German normative QOL data. But when compared to a normative group of patients with hearing loss, only two subscales were affected. The alteration of the subscales was correlated with objective and subjective parameters. Vertigo and postoperative hearing status could be identified as the parameters with the strongest influence on QOL.