Long-term hearing preservation after microsurgical excision of vestibular schwannoma.

Objective: To examine long-term hearing outcomes after microsurgical excision of vestibular schwannoma (VS).

Study Design: Retrospective case review.

Setting: Tertiary referral center.

The role of the anterior neural ridge and Fgf-8 in early forebrain patterning and regionalization in Xenopus laevis.

The tissue, cellular and molecular mechanisms that regulate early regional specification of the vertebrate forebrain are largely unknown. We studied the expression patterns of Xbf-1, an anterior (and telencephalon) neural-specific winged helix transcription factor and Fgf-8, an early-secreted factor. This study looked at Xbf-1 and Fgf-8 expression in combination with embryonic grafting experiments and also used beads containing the recombinant Fgf-8 protein to determine these factors' effects upon forebrain patterning events.