Abstract
INTRODUCTION: 50-80 per cent of the patients with brain gliomas have cognitive impairment, which produces worsening of the quality of life.
OBJECTIVE: to analyze the neuropsychological characteristics in patients with gliomas from the Instituto de Cancerología of Medellín.
METHODS: 50 patients with malignant brain tumors (gliomas) were selected. A neuropsychological battery to assess attention, memory, visual and motor skills, language and executive function was administered. Patient’s performance was compared to Colombian general population; also groups of patients according to tumor localization, size and grade of severity were analyzed; similar comparisons were done between age, gender and school achievement groups.
RESULTS: gender distribution was similar (males 52% and females 48%). Frontal localization (32%) was the most frequent, and predominate in the right hemisphere. Tumor size was over three cm in the 48% of the sample, and 50 per cent had a severe malignity grade. There was alteration in all of the assessed neuropsychological functions, compared to general population. Patients with left tumors had significant impairment in verbal fluency and categorization ability. Those with posterior lesions had low performance in intellectual level, motor skills and memory. As unexpected data significant differences were not found in executive function related to frontal lobe localization.
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