Case 5 — Slowly progressive unilateral hearing loss with mild unsteadiness

Vignette
A 56-year-old man reports three years of slowly progressive left-sided hearing loss with intermittent left-sided tinnitus. There is no rotational vertigo. He has noticed mild unsteadiness on his recent hiking trip but feels normal in routine activities. Word recognition on the left is disproportionately poor compared with his pure tone thresholds. vHIT is obtained as part of his workup, before MRI.

Six-canal vHIT

0100200R latg=0.930100200L latg=0.630100200R antg=0.880100200L antg=0.820100200R postg=0.860100200L postg=0.48

Audiogram

2505001k2k4k8k020406080100120Frequency (Hz)Hearing level (dB HL)○ right× left

Which finding most strongly supports vestibular schwannoma over vestibular neuritis?

References

  1. Halmagyi GM, Chen L, MacDougall HG, Weber KP, McGarvie LA, Curthoys IS. The video head impulse test. Frontiers in Neurology 2017;8:258.
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