• Lotfi Boublata, Mohamad Belahreche, Rafik Ouchtati, Zarina Shabhay, Leila Boutiah, Mohamad Kabache, M'hamed Nadji, Zoheir Djenna, Hocine Bounecer, and Nafa Ioualalen.
• Neurosurgery Department, Ali Ait Idir Specialized Hospital, Algiers, Algeria. Electronic address: lotfiboublata@gmail.com.
• World Neurosurg. 2017 Jul 1; 103: 231-240.

IntroductionLarge and giant vestibular schwannomas pose a real problem in their management. The preservation of facial nerve function may limit tumor resection despite the use of intraoperative monitoring of the facial nerve. In Algeria, vestibular schwannomas represent 5% of all intracranial tumors operated on, 80.5% of which are large or giant.MethodsFrom January 2010 to December 2015, 151 large and giant vestibular schwannomas were operated in our department. Tumor diameter was between 30 and 60 mm. The most common presenting symptom was hearing loss, which was observed in 41.66% of all our patients. All patients were operated in the semi-sitting position with opening of the posterior wall of the internal auditory canal and under continuous intraoperative facial nerve function monitoring.ResultsTumor resection was total in 126 patients. Anatomic preservation of the facial nerve was the reason for nontotal resection in 25 patients. The facial nerve was anatomically preserved in 149 patients. Two years after surgery, the facial nerve function was grade I-II House-Brackmann (H-B) score in 124 cases (82%), grade III-IV H-B score in 21 cases (14%), and grade V-VI H-B score in 06 cases (04%). The status and the improvement of postoperative facial nerve function depend on 4 factors: anatomic preservation of nerve, stimulation threshold, cystic form, and the presence of train activity.ConclusionsThe development of anesthesia techniques and microsurgery and the systematic use of intraoperative monitoring of the facial nerve have allowed us to move from a life preservation era to another era of preservation of function.Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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