Operative and nonoperative linguistic outcomes in brain injury patients.

OBJECTIVE AND BACKGROUND: Linguistic function is one of vulnerable aspects of traumatic brain injury (TBI) which may have destructive effects on patients' communicative activities and daily life, years following trauma. This paper attempts to answer the controversy whether surgery affects increase and decrease of linguistic impairment or not. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Two hundred forty-one TBI patients aged 18-65 with abnormal CT findings and at least 20 minute post-trauma amnesia (PTA), who were conscious at discharge, participated in this study. Based on operative intervention, the samples were divided into two groups: operative and nonoperative. Cognitive and aphasic deficits were inspected formally and pragmatic disorder was informally appraised at discharge. RESULTS: The groups had no significant differences in aphasia incidence and language pragmatic impairment, though they were significantly distinctive in aphasia subcategories and cognitive deficit after trauma. Fluent aphasia was more common in both groups alike. In aphasia subcategories, however, transcortical sensory aphasia (TSA) in operative and anomia in nonoperative group were the most prevalent. Several variables appeared strikingly related to higher aphasia in operative groups as follows: moderate to severe injury, 18-35 and over 50 years of age, more than 1 week PTA, intracranial surgery of multiple lesions in left or bilateral hemisphere fronto-temporal cortex plus post-trauma cognitive and pragmatic impairments, and diffuse axonal injuries. DISCUSSION: Almost certainly, meaningful drop of cognitive function post surgery roots back in significant loss of initial consciousness level. Related factors to postoperative aphasia suggest taking policies through surgery intervention. Discerning the indispensable contributions of neurosurgeons, neurolinguists, and neuroscientists, results inspire more clinical future studies.

Effective factors on linguistic disorder during acute phase following traumatic brain injury in adults.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) has been known to be the leading cause of breakdown and long-term disability in people under 45 years of age. This study highlights the effective factors on post-traumatic (PT) linguistic disorder and relations between linguistic and cognitive function after trauma in adults with acute TBI. A cross-sectional design was employed to study 60 post-TBI hospitalized adults aged 18-65 years. Post-traumatic (PT) linguistic disorder and cognitive deficit after TBI were respectively diagnosed using the Persian Aphasia Test (PAT) and Persian version of Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) at discharge. Primary post-resuscitation consciousness level was determined using the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS). Paracilinical data was obtained by CT scan technique. Multiple logistic regression analysis illustrated that brain injury severity was the first powerful significant predictor of PT linguistic disorder after TBI and frontotemporal lesion was the second. It was also revealed that cognitive function score was significantly correlated with score of each language skill except repetition. Subsequences of TBI are more commonly language dysfunctions that demand cognitive flexibility. Moderate, severe and fronto-temporal lesion can increase the risk of processing deficit in linguistic macrostructure production and comprehension. The dissociation risk of cortical and subcortical pathways related to cognitive-linguistic processing due to intracranial lesions can augment possibility of lexical-semantic processing deficit in acute phase which probably contributes to later cognitive-communication disorder.