Aspects of Oral Language, Speech, and Written Language in Subjects with Temporal Lobe Epilepsy of Difficult Control.
Introduction About 50 million people have epilepsy and 30% of them have epilepsy that does not respond to properly conducted drug treatment. Objective Verify the incidence of language disorders in oral language, speech, and written language of subjects with difficult to control temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and compare the occurrence of these disorders in subjects before and after surgery. Methods Cross-sectional study with quantitative analysis, exploratory type. A questionnaire for data collection was administered covering the following aspects: oral language, speech complaints, and writing production and comprehension. Criteria for inclusion of subjects were a diagnosis of TLE refractory to drug treatment and at least 4 years of schooling. Results The sample of 63 patients with TLE was divided into two groups: presurgical (n = 31) and postsurgical (n = 32). In the postsurgical group, there was a higher frequency of left lobectomy (75%) than right (25%). Conclusion Statistical analysis was performed with the chi-square test (significance level of 0.05). Complaints related to speech-language attention were more predominant in postsurgical subjects. Analysis of oral language, speech, and written language in subjects with epilepsy who underwent temporal lobectomy or not showed findings consistent with symptoms related to transient aphasia, with the presence of paraphasias, as well as changes in speech prosody and melody. These symptoms appeared more associated with recurrence after having a temporal lobectomy.
Masters and Doctorate Program in Communication Disorders, Universidade Tuiuti do Paraná, Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil.
Ana Paula
AP
Berberian
Masters and Doctorate Program in Communication Disorders, Universidade Tuiuti do Paraná, Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil.
Christiane
C
Hopker
Masters and Doctorate Program in Communication Disorders, Universidade Tuiuti do Paraná, Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil.
Ingrid
I
Mazzarotto
Masters and Doctorate Program in Communication Disorders, Universidade Tuiuti do Paraná, Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil.
Jenane
J
Cunha
Masters and Doctorate Program in Communication Disorders, Universidade Tuiuti do Paraná, Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil.
Ana Cristina
AC
Guarinello
Masters and Doctorate Program in Communication Disorders, Universidade Tuiuti do Paraná, Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil.
Giselle
G
Massi
Department of Neurophysiology, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil.
Ana
A
Crippa
epilepsy; language; reading; speech-language and hearing sciences