Hearing recovery following suboccipital excision of acoustic neuroma.

Improvement of hearing after excision of an acoustic neuroma has been observed infrequently. We present a case of dramatic recovery of hearing in a patient with a 1-cm acoustic neuroma whose pure-tone thresholds and speech discrimination had profoundly deteriorated while she awaited surgical therapy. Postoperatively, her hearing in the affected ear is equal to that in her other ear, and her speech discrimination exceeds that of her best preoperative audiogram. Issues related to hearing preservation and improvement after acoustic tumor surgery are discussed.