Intracochleär schwannoma presenting with vertigo

Objective: A schwannoma, arising de novo from the cochlea, is considered rare tumor. Only few prior cases were described in literature. We describe a 53 years old female who presented to our hospital with sudden evoked positional vertigo. Materials & Methods: The audiogram demonstrated a unilateral, left sided-down-sloping sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) with PTA of 35 dB and discrimination score of 64%. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed a 3mm lesion in the left cochlea, in keeping with the diagnosis of cochlear schwannoma. Results: The diagnosis of cochlear schwannoma in this patient was mostly an "incidenteloma". Management should consider the fact that hearing cannot be preserved for patients with serviceable hearing and growing tumors. Conclusion: Completing an audiologic workup for a dizzy patient, as well as head MRI for unilateral hearing loss is essential.