Aphasia in patients after brain tumour resection

Background: It is has been estimated that aphasia occurs in one-third to half of patients who have had a left hemisphere brain tumour resection. While studies have documented aphasia before malignant brain tumour resection, little is known about the type and severity of aphasia after tumour resection. Aims: The aims of this study were (1) to describe the subtypes and severity of aphasia during the acute recovery period after malignant brain tumour resection; (2) to describe potential associations between acute language outcomes and tumour characteristics; and (3) to compare our findings to those reported in the literature to identify possible language differences between patients who suffer stroke and patients who undergo brain tumour resection. Methods & Procedures: We retrospectively reviewed the Western Aphasia Battery (WAB) scores during the acute recovery period of individuals who underwent resection of malignant brain tumours to determine patterns of aphasia severity and subtype. Outcomes & Results: We found that aphasia was usually mild (63% of patients) and that anomic aphasia was the most common subtype (48% of patients) during the acute recovery period after brain tumour resection, regardless of lesion location or tumour grade. Conclusions: The patterns of postoperative language functioning that we observed during the acute recovery period after surgery for a brain tumour support the perspective that acute aphasia profiles may be fundamentally different in patients with brain tumours compared with patients who have had a stroke.