Experience of multidisciplinary team meetings in vestibular schwannoma: a preliminary report

To assess the contribution of multidisciplinary team meetings (MTM) on vestibular schwannoma management as well as to (1) compare professional compliance to national guidelines and (2) study the percentage of loss to follow-up in cases of conservative management by radiologic observation. A retrospective descriptive study of MTMs held between January 2011 and May 2013 in a tertiary referral center. Patients were classified in three groups according to the MTM decision (observation, surgery or radiotherapy). A total of 363 cases were discussed during the study period (29 months). One hundred and ninety-four decisions (53.4 %) were for conservative management with radiologic observation, 130 (35.8 %) for surgery, and 39 (10.7 %) for radiation therapy. The sex ratio was 0.94, and the patients had a median age of 59 years (range 18–86 years). Most of the vestibular schwannomas (74.2 %) were small (stages I and II). Global concordance between the MTM decision and International Radiosurgery Association guidelines was 88.7 %. Twenty-three percent of the 104 files that were discussed in MTMs between January 2011 and July 2012, for which conservative management was decided, were lost to follow-up by 18 months. Management of vestibular schwannoma remains controversial, but it usually depends on the evolutive status. MTMs improve practice and facilitate the creation and maintenance of local registries. Future studies in MTMs are warranted to evaluate the benefit and evaluated if MTM could optimize long-term follow-up, limiting loss to follow-up in the observation of vestibular schwannomas that may be evolutive.