Sudden hearing loss and cerebellopontine angle tumors.

Lesions of the cerebellopontine angle may cause a sudden hearing loss. To illustrate and reaffirm the importance of a thorough neurotologic evaluation we performed a retrospective review of the audiologic and clinical data available on 506 patients with proven lesions of the cerebellopontine angle. Seventy-seven patients (15.2%) were found to have a history commensurate with sudden hearing loss. We reviewed the relevant audiologic data as well as the clinical circumstances of this select patient population.