Abstract
The long-term progress of a case of word deafness with severe jargon aphasia was reported. The patient was a 34-year-old right-handed man who suffered a serious fall in 1982 which left him unconscious. The hematoma was evacuated immediately. A CT scan demonstrated a lowdensity area in the left superior temporal gyrus, middle temporal gyrus, middle frontal gyrus and hydrocephalus. After 24 months post-onset the patient came to our clinic for the first time, at which time he had no word comprehension. Speech audiometry of both ears revealed that patient was unable to discriminate any monosyllabic words. Pure tone audiometry revealed normal range in the left ear. Ambient sound recognition was comparatively preserved. Reading aloud and understanding of letters were only moderately impaired.
After combined lip-reading and aural training for 1 year, the patient's auditory comprehension recovered from 20% to 85%. His listening score recovered from 0% to 40%. Next word-finding therapy was begun. Results showed a marked improvement in his word-finding score.
From this case it is suggested that word deafness shows qualitative recovery over a long period. Some patients with word deafness associated with aphasia show improved lip-reading ability.
It must be emphasized that long-term training may be necessary for some young adult cases.
