Conclusions: Patients with acoustic neuroma experienced reduced quality of life (QOL) after surgery. Individual factors did not have a significant effect on QOL. In the future, QOL should be a basic factor in the outcome evaluation of different therapeutic regimens in the treatment of acoustic neuroma.
Objective: To measure the QOL of patients who underwent unilateral acoustic neuroma surgery via the middle cranial fossa approach.
Material and methods: The Short Form-36 (SF-36) Health Survey and a self-designed disease-specific questionnaire were used during follow-up examinations to assess health-related QOL. The pure-tone average was used to specify hearing ability. Facial nerve function was described using the House-Brackmann grading system. A total of 28 male and 14 female patients who underwent surgery between 1997 and 2001 were included in the study.
Results: Patients' QOL scores revealed significant reductions in QOL in comparison to normative German QOL data. Gender, age, tumor size or location and clinical symptoms such as hearing loss and restricted facial nerve function did not have an effect on QOL. The SF-36 scales physical functioning, role functioning-physical, bodily pain, general health, social functioning and role functioning-emotional demonstrated significant QOL reductions.