Red flags alerting a posterior cranial fossa tumor from audiovestibular perspectives - a review.

Background: There is no comprehensive and up-to-date overview of audiovestibular approach to the posterior fossa tumors in the literature.

Objective: This paper reviewed the literature relating to tumors at the posterior cranial fossa to find red flags alerting a posterior fossa lesion from audiovestibular perspectives.

Methods: This review was developed from articles published in those journals listed on the journal citation reports. Through the PubMed database, Embase, Google Scholar, and Cochrane library, 60 articles were finally obtained based on the PRISMA guidelines for reporting reviews.

Results: The presence of one red flag indicates a positive predictive value of 33% for detecting a posterior fossa lesion. Clinical features, namely, 1) mid-frequency sudden sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL), 2) bilateral sudden SNHL, and 3) rebound nystagmus may indicate a posterior fossa lesion, representing one, two, and three red flags, respectively.

Conclusion: Those with 1) mid-frequency sudden SNHL, 2) bilateral sudden SNHL, and 3) rebound nystagmus trigger one, two, and three red flags, respectively, alerting clinicians the possibility of a posterior fossa lesion, which warrant MR imaging to exclude life-threatening or treatable conditions.

Significance: Patients with posterior fossa tumors may have potential life-threatening outcome.