Normal audiologic presentations in patients with acoustic neuroma: An evaluation using strict audiologic parameters.

Although several studies have previously reported on patients presenting with "normal" audiologic parameters in acoustic neuroma, the present study is, to our knowledge, the first to exclusively examine in detail cases involving exceptionally stringent objective audiometric features. Of 369 patients with acoustic neuroma who were operated on between April 1980 and April 1997 by our group, 10 had strictly normal hearing, defined as follows: (1) pure-tone average < 20 dB; (2) speech discrimination score > 90%; and (3) interaural differences

Modified liberatory maneuver: effective treatment for benign paroxysmal positional vertigo.

A modification of the liberatory maneuver was used to treat 25 patients with benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV). The modified liberatory maneuver relieved symptoms without recurrence in 11 (44%) patients. A partial response was noted in 6 (24%) patients, and there was no improvement in 8 (32%) patients. Follow-up ranged from 1 to 20 months (median 4.0 months). Patient age was not predictive of response to treatment. Duration of symptoms before treatment, however, was greater in nonresponders (median 15.5 months) than in complete (median 5.0 months) or partial (median 3.5 months) responders. The modified liberatory maneuver takes approximately 5 minutes to perform and provides effective treatment in two thirds of patients who suffer from BPPV.