RESUMO
The most frequent sequelae following a translabyrinthine approach for vestibular schwannoma resection is complete hearing loss on the affected side. Such patients could beneï¬t from a cochlear implant, provided that two essential requisites are met before surgery: a preserved cochlear nerve and a patent cochlea to accommodate the electrode array. The goal of our study is to determine the prevalence and extent of cochlear ossiï¬cation following a translabyrinthine approach. Postoperative MRI of 41 patients were retrospectively reviewed. Patients were classiï¬ed according to the degree of cochlear obliteration into three groups (patent cochlea, partially obliterated cochlea and totally obliterated cochlea). The interval between surgery and the ï¬rst MRI was studied as well as its relationship with the rate of cochlear ossiï¬cation. At ï¬rst postoperative MRI (mean interval of 20 months), 78% of patients showed some degree of cochlear ossiï¬cation. Differences were found in the time interval between surgery and ï¬rst MRI for each group, showing a smaller interval of time the patent cochlea group (p > 0.05). When MRI was performed before the ï¬rst year after surgery, a larger rate of patent cochlea was found (p > 0.05). The present study suggests that cochlear ossiï¬cation is a time-depending process, whose grounds are still to be deï¬ned.