“Serviceable hearing” typically refers to the ability to hear well enough to perform daily tasks and communicate effectively, even if one's hearing is not perfect. It suggests that while there may be some limitations or challenges related to hearing, they are not severe enough to significantly impair functioning in daily life. This term is often used in discussions about hearing loss and the effectiveness of hearing aids or other assistive devices in improving an individual's ability to hear and communicate.
Serviceable hearing is defined as Pure tone audiometry (PTA) <or= 50dB and a speech discrimination score of >or= 50%. However, many authors are using PTA <or= to 30dB and SDS >or= to 70% more recently.
Prevalence of acute sensorineural hearing loss (ASHL) in vestibular schwannoma (VS) patients early after radiosurgery is 8.6%, likely due to radiation injury to the cochlear nerve. Thus, when tumor size is <1.45 cm, serviceable hearing is the criteria for determining whether observation policy (with serviceable hearing) or radiosurgery (lack of serviceable hearing) is given. For those tumor sizes ranged 1.45-3.0 cm, radiosurgery is indicated regardless of hearing level 1).
In the absence of randomized controlled trials and larger cohorts, drawing strong conclusions on which patients to treat depending on their initial hearing status and tumor size remains a matter of debate, especially for intracanalicular vestibular schwannoma 2).