Purpose <p>Posterior fossa tumour (PFT) surgery carries a risk of mutism or severely reduced speech. As for higher-cognitive language functions, word-finding difficulties have been reported, but no study has compared pre- and postoperative word-finding speeds to identify impairment caused by surgery. The current study investigated changes in word-finding ability associated with PFT surgery and examined factors affecting postoperative ability.</p> Method <p>We included 184 children aged 5:0–17:9 years undergoing PFT surgery and assessed word-finding ability before and after surgery using a speeded picture-naming test. We compared postoperative word-finding performance with both preoperative performance and age-specific norms and examined factors affecting word-finding ability.</p> Results <p>We found no significant difference between pre- and postoperative performance, reflecting that some children exhibited better word-finding ability after surgery, others poorer. After surgery, 95% of the children performed two standard deviations above (slower than) age-specific norms. Tumour location in the fourth ventricle negatively affected postoperative word-finding ability (<i>B</i> = −4.09, <i>p</i> &lt; 0.05).</p> Conclusion <p>For some children, PFT surgery leads to postoperative word-finding difficulties, emphasizing the importance of postoperative language assessments and interventions. Fourth-ventricle tumour location emerged as a risk factor for poorer postoperative word-finding ability, likely reflecting surgical damage to the dentato-thalamo-cortical pathway (DTCP).</p>

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Postoperative word-finding difficulties in children with posterior fossa tumours: a crosslinguistic European cohort study

  • K. Persson,
  • J. Grønbæk,
  • I. Tiberg,
  • Å. Fyrberg,
  • C. Castor,
  • B. Andreozzi,
  • R. Frič,
  • P. Hauser,
  • R. Kiudeliene,
  • C. Mallucci,
  • R. Mathiasen,
  • P. Nyman,
  • B. Pizer,
  • A. Sehested,
  • D. Boeg Thomsen

摘要

Purpose

Posterior fossa tumour (PFT) surgery carries a risk of mutism or severely reduced speech. As for higher-cognitive language functions, word-finding difficulties have been reported, but no study has compared pre- and postoperative word-finding speeds to identify impairment caused by surgery. The current study investigated changes in word-finding ability associated with PFT surgery and examined factors affecting postoperative ability.

Method

We included 184 children aged 5:0–17:9 years undergoing PFT surgery and assessed word-finding ability before and after surgery using a speeded picture-naming test. We compared postoperative word-finding performance with both preoperative performance and age-specific norms and examined factors affecting word-finding ability.

Results

We found no significant difference between pre- and postoperative performance, reflecting that some children exhibited better word-finding ability after surgery, others poorer. After surgery, 95% of the children performed two standard deviations above (slower than) age-specific norms. Tumour location in the fourth ventricle negatively affected postoperative word-finding ability (B = −4.09, p < 0.05).

Conclusion

For some children, PFT surgery leads to postoperative word-finding difficulties, emphasizing the importance of postoperative language assessments and interventions. Fourth-ventricle tumour location emerged as a risk factor for poorer postoperative word-finding ability, likely reflecting surgical damage to the dentato-thalamo-cortical pathway (DTCP).