Clinical-epidemiological manifestation of vestibular Schwannoma

a literature review

Abstract

estibular Schwannoma (VS) accounts for 8% of intracranial tumors and 90% of cerebellar-angle tumors. However, there are still few studies that address the clinical manifestations triggered by this tumor. The objective of this work is to describe the clinical manifestations and epidemiological of VS. This is a literature review. We searched articles published between 2012-2017 in the Pubmed Central® database. The terms usedin the research of these articles were: 1) “schwannoma / vestibular”; 2) “acoustic / neuroma”. We identified 1,497 and 1,016 articles from terms 1 and 2, respectively. However, only 60 articles were analyzed from each term, totalizing a survey of 120 articles. With the exclusion of the nine replicates, 111 articles remained. These articles were selected by reading the title and abstract. Articles with a case report design were excluded. Thus, 14 articles were selected. The data analyzed in these articles were: 1) conceptual description of VS; 2) epidemiology (percentage by sex and age group) of VS; 3) percentage expression of the prevalence of VS symptoms. Eight, seven and five articles were used in analyzes 1, 2 and 3, respectively. This study observed that women are more affected than men, that the average age most affected is between the fifth and sixth decade of life. As for the symptoms, low hearing and tinnitus are the most frequent, being commonly associated. The knowledge of this epidemiology is relevant for the improvement of the clinical management of patients with VS.