Abstract
Aim:The aim of our study was to evaluate vestibular and posturographic findings in patients with vestibular schwannoma indicated for surgical removal. We focused particularly on evaluation of posturography.
Materials and methods: The group consisted of 44 patients (19 women, 25 men) who underwent surgical removal of vestibular schwannoma at the Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery, Faculty Hospital Motol, 1st Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Prague between 2007 and 2010. Since all patients were indicated for surgery, the majority of the cohort were patients with the grade 4 disease (27).
Before surgery, each patient underwent clinical vestibular examination, electronystagmographic recordings and posturography. The data were analysed using the independent sample T-test and cross-tabulations.
A large number of variables were eliminated by factor analysis. Results: Statistical analysis revealed that the performance on the step quick turn test, a part of posturography, is the most typical parameter for vestibular pathology.
Furthermore, we proved that younger age is associated with the presence of higher grade tumours. Conclusions: Our study confirmed the importance of posturography in the diagnosis of vestibular pathology in patients with vestibular schwannoma.
Posturography should be added to electronystagmography as a standard diagnostic tool.