ABSTRACT
Tumours of the cerebellopontine angle are rare, invariably benign and slow growing. Vestibular schwannomas are by far the commonest of these tumours and as the name implies, arise from the myelin sheath of the vestibular nerve within the internal auditory meatus. As these tumours grow, they expand into the cerebellopontine angle, which is the cerebrospinal fluid space separating the petrous temporal bone from the brain. The management of patients with a vestibular schwannoma is dependent on the patient preference, tumour size, patient age and patient symptoms. Patients with smaller tumours have a choice of management options including tumour surveillance with serial magnetic resonance imaging, surgery and radiotherapy. Many patients with small tumours will opt for tumour surveillance. Some units advocate active treatment for small tumours arguing that early intervention offers a probability of maintaining residual useful hearing and tumour control.
