As the world ages, new disease-conditions start to proliferate. Although a lot of experts are equipped with advance knowledge about the human body and the medical science, these latest conditions are getting harder to understand, and one of these is the disease called Acoustic neuroma.
In this article, you will be learning more about this condition and some interventions that are used to prevent and treat it. Particularly, you will know more about the cyberknife treatment for acoustic neuroma. At the end of this article, you are expected to understand the exact indication of this therapy and the possible risk factors or complications that it brings.
What is acoustic neuroma?
It is also medically termed as vestibular schwannoma, and it is a benign tumor that greatly affects the vestibulocochlear cranial nerve. This nerve is responsible for your sense of hearing and balance.
The primary symptom of this condition is hearing loss. Other signs and symptoms are loss of balance, ringing on the ear or tinnitus, vertigo, nausea, increased pressure on the ears, and vomiting. Other people might also suffer from total deafness if the condition worsened.
Before any treatment is instituted, a thorough diagnostic study is performed. The ear doctor will probably opt for a Magnetic Resonance Imaging or MRI study to determine the size of the tumor and the extent of damage. Several hearing examinations will also be done, as well as tests of balance control. This condition is not easy to diagnose, and it is more difficult if it developed on elderly individuals, because hearing loss can also be associated as a normal response to aging.
The first line of treatment is usually surgery, using several approaches. The aim of this treatment modality is to remove the tumor, especially if it is already large enough to cause total deafness. Moreover, a large tumor can also affect and alter the functions of other nearby organs.
The advent of cyberknife method
Another intervention is the cyberknife treatment for acoustic neuroma. This uses gamma radiation to incise or remove completely the growing tumor and leaving the site free of potentially harmful tumor cells. There are also different approaches to this kind of therapy, and Image Guidance is one of these. In this approach the procedure is being closely monitored by an X-ray procedure to determine whether the radiation is perfectly directed towards the tumor or not.
Another approach is the Robotic Mounting. It utilizes the robotics technology for a precise execution of the procedure. One advantage of this kind of approach is that the gamma rays are being emitted at different directions towards the tumor, and there is no need to use the X-ray.
As of the present, there are no recorded side effects of both approaches, because the radiation that is being used has a low frequency, which is being tolerated well by the body. However, further studies are being done to determine more the success of these in treating other conditions, and if they can really be risky to one's health.
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