Jonathan White, M.D.
Department of Neurological Surgery
UT Southwestern Medical Center
5303 Harry Hines Blvd.
4th Floor, Suite 100
Dallas, TX 75390-9167
214-645-2300
Transcript: Monitoring function of facial nerve and hearing during a microvascular decompression
Technology exists to monitor the function of the facial nerve and to monitor your hearing during the operation. Some surgeons believe that this not an essential part of the procedure because the dissection proceeds carefully with or without the monitoring. Others of us believe that the monitoring helps make sure that you are not inadvertently injuring the nerve. The monitoring can provide an early warning sign that there’s too much retraction on some part of the brain or that the nerve is being manipulated too much.