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RESEARCH PRODUCT

The Role of Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Central Hearing Deficits: Beyond the Acoustic Schwannoma

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Acoustic schwannoma is assumed to be the most common cause of sensory-neural hearing loss (SNHL), and many papers have described the role of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the diagnosis of cerebello-pontine angle (CPA) tumours, particularly schwannoma. We retrospectively examined 72 patients complaining of different clinical syndromes and SNHL or different kinds of acoustic impairment who underwent MRI brain study excluding the presence of acoustic schwannoma and other CPA masses. In conclusion, although acoustic schwannoma is the most common cause of acquired HD, a lesion involving the neural centers of the acoustic pathway can also determine SNHL or HD. Considering the high sensitivity of MRI in the detection of acoustic intra-axial pathway lesions, an in-depth MRI examination of the brain stem and the temporal lobe is mandatory when SNHL or HD occur in patients not affected by acoustic schwannoma.