Acoustic neuroma Health Dictionary

A tumour or new growth arising from the nerve of hearing – eighth auditory nerve. In middle-aged and elderly.

Symptoms: tinnitus, nerve deafness, vertigo. Herbal treatment may prove beneficial, before surgery. Treatment alternatives. Tea, mixture. Equal parts: Gotu Kola, Violet leaves, Clivers. 1 heaped teaspoon to each cup boiling water: infuse 10 minutes: dose, half-1 cup thrice daily, before meals.

Powders. Formula. Equal parts: Poke root, Echinacea, Blue Flag root. Mix. Dose: 500mg (two 00 capsules or one-third teaspoon), thrice daily, before meals.

Tinctures. Equal parts: Yellow Dock, Thuja, Poke root. Mix. Dose: 1 teaspoon in water thrice daily. Topical. 2-3 drops warm oil of Mullein injected into the meatus 3-4 times daily.

Nutrients: All vitamins. Selenium. Zinc.

Treatment by or in liaison with a general medical practitioner. 

A rare, noncancerous tumour arising from supporting cells that surround the 8th cranial nerve (see acoustic nerve), usually within the internal auditory meatus (the canal in the skull through which the nerve passes from the inner ear to the brain). Usually, the cause of an acoustic neuroma is unknown. However, tumours that affect the nerves on both sides of the head simultaneously may be part of a condition known as neurofibromatosis. Acoustic neuroma can cause deafness, tinnitus, loss of balance, and pain in the face and the affected ear.

Diagnosis is made by hearing tests followed by X-rays, CT scanning, or MRI. Surgery may be needed, but treatment

with radiotherapy to shrink the tumour is also effective.

A slow-growing, benign tumour in the auditory canal arising from the Schwann cells of the acoustic cranial nerve. The neuroma, which accounts for about 7 per cent of all tumours inside the CRANIUM, may cause facial numbness, hearing loss, unsteady balance, headache, and TINNITUS. It can usually be removed surgically, sometimes with microsurgical techniques that preserve the facial nerve.

see vestibular schwannoma.