Acoustic Neuroma and drug interactions

[reginas]

As stated previously, I was feeling very tired to the point of collapsing.  This was actually due to depression and anxiety.  I am now on Alprazolam (0.25 mg 3 x a day) and it seems to work. The Trileptal (750 mg per day) works on the pain quite well.  But here is my questions, what determines the different treatments.  What size range do the MDs jsut observe the tumor, what size is accpetable for Gamma Knife, and what size is acceptable for surgery.  I must admit that I am stiull firghtened over this whole thing.  I already had one tumor in my head (an osteoma) and now I have a second one.  the osteoma is nothing sompared to this even though both are benign.  Please give me some answers to make  me feel less scared.  Also who is the best person to deal with this tumor in the USA?  Thank you.

[CCF-Neuro-M.D.-JT]

Here at the clinic, we tend to recommend surgery rather than gamma knife especially in young patients.  This is not size based, rather there;s just more data out there on surgical outcomes as opposed to gamma knife which is a relatively newer procedure. Also, there is a possibility that there may be malignant transformation associated with the gamma knife procedure later on down the road. This still needs further studies, but there are a few case reports of a possible causation in the literature. Here at the clinic, both ENT and Neurosurgery do a combined procedure for acoustic neuromas with Dr. Peter Weber as the specialist. Good luck.