Determinants of Vestibular Schwannoma Growth.

Objective: Management of vestibular schwannomas (VS) involves surgery, radiotherapy, or surveillance, based on patient and tumor factors. We recently described conditional probability as a more accurate method for stratifying VS growth risk. Building on this, we now describe determinants of VS growth, allowing clinicians to move toward a more personalized approach to growth-risk profiling.

Performing MRI Scans on Cochlear Implant and Auditory Brainstem Implant Recipients: Review of 14.5 Years Experience.

Objective: To assess the complication rate of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) using 1.5 T scanners on cochlear implant (CI) and auditory brainstem implant (ABI) recipients over 14.5 years.

The Conditional Probability of Vestibular Schwannoma Growth at Different Time Points After Initial Stability on an Observational Protocol.

Objective: The natural history of vestibular schwannomas (VS) is well documented in the literature, with tumour growth being paramount to decision making for both surveillance and treatment of these patients. Most previous studies refer to the risk of VS growth over a given period of time; however, this is not useful for counselling patients at different stages of their follow-up, as the risk of tumour growth is likely to be less following each subsequent year that a tumour does not grow. Accordingly, we investigated the conditional probability of VS growth at particular time-points, given a patient has not grown thus far.

When Should We Stop Scanning Older Patients with Vestibular Schwannomas?

 Observation is a well-accepted management for small- to medium-sized vestibular schwannomas (VSs). Although there are good data on the natural history of this disease within adults, no studies have looked specifically at those aged over 70 years. Thus, there is a need for a surveillance protocol to determine if and when we can stop imaging safely patients aged 70 years and over with a new diagnosis of VSs when managed with observation.