Michael Burmester is a Pretoria-based businessman who runs his own company that constructs power lines for heavy power generation. He learned his trade at the gold mines in Evander and later went to work for Eskom, which he left in 1990 to start his own power business. During this time, he was exposed to significant noise, yet he had also been exposed to loud gun firing during his military service. In those days very little attention was paid to the occupational health aspects of exposure to loud noise. He had had significant exposure at work and a contributing factor may have been his exposure to gun fire.
Symptoms begin
Around 2000, he started to experience a symptom in his left ear. “It felt like a bubble had burst in my ear,” says Michael. “It wasn’t painful, but I decided to go to an ear nose and throat specialist. A hearing test was done, and it was established that I had lost hearing in my left ear, and there was some hearing loss in my right ear as well.”
By 2010, Michael says the feeling of a “bubble bursting” in his ear had become worse, and he was experiencing the symptom more or less all the time. He was sent for a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan which revealed he had a vestibular schwannoma in his left ear. A vestibular schwannoma or acoustic neuroma is a non-cancerous tumour on the main nerve leading from the inner ear to the brain. Excessive loud noise is considered a risk factor for developing these tumours.
A few months later, a follow up MRI revealed that the tumour had grown. However, Michael’s specialist informed him that a medical intervention was still not required. This was in line with the ‘watch and wait and see’ approach.
Six years later he was seen by a neurosurgeon in 2016, who made the clinical decision that the tumour should be removed. Options presented to him included surgery as well as stereotactic radiation. Michael says, “I did some research on the treatment of vestibular schwannomas and read a lot about it, but felt wary about the possible consequences of the treatments. I didn’t want traditional brain surgery, because the bone behind the ear is cut to remove the tumour.”
In 2018, he went to see another specialist who told him his schwannoma had grown into the brain cavity and was becoming dangerous. “While there was still no pain, I had hearing loss. I was advised that Gamma Knife surgery would be the best option for me,” says Michael.
Michael’s Gamma Knife experience
Michael explains that on the morning of his treatment at the Gamma Knife South Africa unit at Netcare’s Milpark Hospital, he had an MRI to determine the exact location of the tumour and then a headframe was fitted onto his head. The frame ensures that the gamma rays precisely target a tumour. “The fitting of the headframe was painful although I was provided with local anaesthetic. The treatment in the Gamma Knife machine took about 20 minutes and was not painful at all.”
Michael returned to his normal activities on the same day of the treatment.
A year later, he went back for a check-up and an MRI. The specialist compared his MRI to previous scans and told Michael his schwannoma had stopped growing and was breaking up.
I was out of danger
“My hearing loss in my left ear won’t get remedied,” says Michael, “but the Gamma Knife treatment stopped further growth of the tumour and meant that I was out of danger,” he says.
“I’m very glad I had this treatment. The staff at the Gamma Knife South Africa unit at Milpark hospital were great and the doctors were excellent. I would recommend that anyone suffering with a vestibular schwannoma discusses Gamma Knife treatment with their doctor.”
Watch this discussion on vestibular schwannoma treatment by our expert panel
