Treatments

There are three options for managing an acoustic neuroma: observation to determine whether it's growing and how fast, radiation and surgical removal.

Monitoring
If you have a small acoustic neuroma that isn't growing or is growing slowly and causes few or no signs or symptoms, you and your doctor may decide to monitor it, especially if you're an older adult or otherwise not a good candidate for treatment.

Your doctor may recommend that you have regular imaging and hearing tests to determine whether the tumor is growing and how quickly. If the scans show the tumor is growing or if the tumor causes progressive hearing loss or other difficulties, you may need to undergo treatment.

Stereotactic radiosurgery
Stereotactic radiosurgery, such as gamma-knife radiosurgery, enables doctors to deliver radiation precisely to a tumor without making an incision. The doctor attaches a lightweight headframe to your numbed scalp. Using imaging scans, your doctor pinpoints the tumor and then plots where to apply the radiation beams. This procedure often is performed under local anesthesia.

The purpose of radiosurgery is to stop the growth of a tumor. It may also be used for residual tumors — portions of a tumor that traditional brain surgery can't remove without damaging brain tissue.

It may take weeks, months or years before the effects of radiosurgery become evident. Your doctor will monitor your progress with follow-up imaging studies and hearing tests.

Surgical removal
The goal of surgery is to remove the tumor and preserve the facial nerve to prevent facial paralysis and preserve hearing. Performed under general anesthesia, this type of surgery involves removing the tumor through an incision in your skull. You may need to stay in the hospital from four to six days after the surgery, and recovery may take six weeks or more.