BibTeX

@article{antonsson-etal-2018-post-261877,
	title        = {Post-surgical effects on language in patients with presumed low-grade glioma},
	abstract     = {Objectives: Low-grade glioma (LGG) is a slow-growing brain tumour often situated in or near areas involved in language and/or cognitive functions. Thus, language impairments due to tumour growth or surgical resection are obvious risks. We aimed to investigate language outcome following surgery in patients with presumed LGG, using a comprehensive and sensitive language assessment.
Materials and methods: Thirty-two consecutive patients with presumed LGG were assessed preoperative, early post-operative, and 3 months post-operative using sensitive tests including lexical retrieval, language comprehension and high-level language. The patients’ preoperative language ability was compared with a reference group, but also with performance at post-operative controls. Further, the association between tumour location and language performance pre-and post-operatively was explored. 
Results: Before surgery, the patients with presumed LGG performed worse on tests of
lexical retrieval when compared to a reference group (BNT: LGG-group median 52, Reference-group
median 54, P = .002; Animals: LGG-group mean 21.0, Reference-group mean 25, P = 001; Verbs: LGG-group mean 17.3, Reference-group mean 21.4, P = .001). At early post-operative assessment, we observed a decline in all language tests, whereas at 3 months there was only a decline on a single test of lexical retrieval (Animals: preoperative. median 20, post-op median 14, P = .001). The highest proportion of language impairment was found in the group with a tumour in language-eloquent
areas at all time-points.
Conclusions: Although many patients with a tumour in the left hemisphere deteriorated in their language function directly after surgery, their prognosis for recovery was good.},
	journal      = {Acta Neurologica Scandinavica},
	author       = {Antonsson, Malin and Jakola, Asgeir Store and Longoni, Francesca and Carstam, Louise and Hartelius, Lena and Thordstein, Magnus and Tisell, Magnus},
	year         = {2018},
	volume       = {137},
	number       = {5},
	pages        = {469--480},
}