Cranial nerve length predicts the risk of delayed facial and trigeminal neuropathies after acoustic tumor stereotactic radiosurgery.

PURPOSE: To test the hypothesis that length of cranial nerve irradiated is a major factor predicting the risk of cranial nerve injury following radiosurgery and to identify any other significant related treatment factors.

METHODS AND MATERIALS: Ninety-two patients (93 acoustic tumors) were treated with a 201 source Cobalt-60 gamma unit from 1987 to 1990 and prospectively followed. The range of minimum tumor dose was 12-20 Gy and maximum dose 24-50 Gy. Univariate and multivariate analyses were used to evaluate any correlations between tumor measurements and treatment factors, with the development of trigeminal and facial neuropathies following radiosurgery.

RESULTS

The risks of trigeminal and facial neuropathy following radiosurgery were associated with the pon-petrous distance and mid porous transverse tumor diameters respectively (anatomically related to the irradiated length of cranial nerves V and VII respectively) in both univariate (p = .002 for V and p = .026 for VII) and multivariate (p = .004 for V and p = .055 for VII) analyses. Tumor volume, other tumor measurements, maximum dose, minimum tumor dose, and tumor dose inhomogeneity were not significantly related to either trigeminal or facial neuropathy in univariate and multivariate analyses.

CONCLUSION

Within a minimum tumor dose range of 12-20 Gy, the incidence of delayed trigeminal or facial neuropathy depended more on the estimated length of nerve irradiated than the tumor dose or tumor volume. In the future, the risk of delayed facial or trigeminal cranial neuropathy may be reduced significantly by performing radiosurgery when the tumor still has both a small mid-porous transverse diameter and a small pons-petrous distance.