ABSTRACT
Most investigators have followed the recommendations of Grundy et al. (30), who advocate, for reasons of expediency, the measurement of only wave V. There is a practical trade-off between generating a more complete picture vs. faster real-time results. Wave V ABR has been shown to increase postoperative hearing preservation in surgery for acoustic neuromas ::::3 cc. Slavit et al. (32) conducted a case-control study of intraoperative ABR monitoring. A total of 60 consecutive patients who underwent acoustic neuroma resection with ABR were compared with a matched group of 60 controls. Overall, 42% of those monitored vs. 25% of the controls had preserved hearing. Monitoring during operations for tumors <2 em resulted in an even higher relative percentage of hearing preservation. Intraoperative monitoring has significantly improved the preservation of hearing during operations for tumors < 3 em.
