News Story

[Joef]

He's another story .. this name does sound familiar, but not sure..

http://www.gilroydispatch.com/lifestyles/contentview.asp?c=190231

[ppearl214]

wow Joe.. thanks!  I am curious why the final decision for Skull Base Inst. vs. House (technique used)? Not sure who the patient is but very interesting article! Thanks for sharing!

Phyl

[Sefra22]

Wow, $20,000 dollars out-of-pocket? I wonder why insurance didn't cover more.

[DeniseSmith]

Sounds familiar to me too.

I am pretty sure its under the thread "Dr. Shanian saved my husbands life".  I am happy the procedure worked for him.  He is lucky he had time to research and make a choice.  Personally, I don't think he realizes some people don't have a choice of surgery, radiation or any other type of treatment, due to size of tumor and/or timing when they are diagnosed.  Its surgery and nothing else.

Like Sefra, I also wonder why insurance didn't pay more, unless it's  because they consider it "experimental".

Denise

[vcschaub]

The article states that the tumor is removed by laser, "Shahinian blasts little parts of the tumor with a laser and sucks out the loosened pieces". During traditional surgery the tumor is peeled away from the nerve. Does anyone know how the laser affects the nerves around and under the tumor? I had never heard of acoustic neuroma tumor removal via laser and am curious if there is less or equal disturbance to the surrounding nerves.

[Obita]

I had asked my doctors about this approach.  They said they would never want to risk doing it.  With a dime sized hole if there were any bleeders they couldn't get the hole bigger fast enough to save my life.  I said, OK I'm fine with the big hole.  And big hole I got - stuffed with belly fat.

[matti]

I am also very curious as to how the laser affects the nerves and surrounding tissue. I too thought it sounded familiar and looked up that particular thread, not sure if it is the same, ages are different as well.
The first thing I thought of was because it may be considered "experimental"  insurance would cover only a portion

 Interesting article and thanks for posting it Joef

[Larry]

Don't know what the gilroy dispatch is but this process sounds dodgy to me.

I'll try and research this Dr. Hrayr Shahinian.

Laz