Does repeated hyperbaric exposure to 4 atmosphere absolute cause hearing impairment? Study in Guinea pigs and clinical incidences.

Hypothesis: Direct pressure applied on the inner ear cannot induce hearing loss.

Background: Three possible causes have been described in the literature for inner ear permanent lesions during scuba diving: pressure imbalance between the middle ear and the external ear, appearance of microbubbles in the internal ear, and direct effect of pressure on the inner ear. We seek to determine whether this last factor can be involved.

Cerebellopontine angle paraganglioma.

Background: Acoustic neuroma account for 80% of cerebellopontine angle tumors. Paraganglioma is a rare tumor in this region.

Objective: The authors report a case of cerebellopontine angle paraganglioma arising from the anterior inferior cerebellar artery.

Retrosigmoid approach for small and medium-sized acoustic neuromas.

Objective: Clinical study of the keyhole acoustic neuroma retrosigmoid approach for facial nerve and hearing preservation.

Study Design: This was a prospective case review from October 1993 to December 1998 in a referral hospital care unit.

Patients: A total of 119 consecutive patients with a tumor size of <25 mm in the cerebellopontine angle corrected by a retrosigmoid approach were included in the study.