Most commonly it is a high frequency hearing loss but some will have normal hearing - or symmetric hearing with modest diminishment or distortion. An early sign is avoiding one ear while using a telephone. As the tumor grows, it can encroach on the adjacent brainstem. This may create headaches, difficulty walking and damage to cranial nerves. Cranial nerves are neurologic structures that originate from the brain performing certain motor or sensory functions.
Late symptoms are pain, numbness or weakness in the face.
With increasing size, progressive symptoms include nausea, vomiting and even coma, respiratory depression and death. People with bilateral acoustic neuromas commonly have an inherited disease called neurofibromatosis. By radiographic appearance there is no difference between the sporadically occurring unilateral acoustic neuromas and the bilaterally occurring disease. The bilateral type is usually more aggressive in its invasion, however. Much acoustic neuroma data was presented at a National Institute of Health Consensus Development Conference.