Int Arch Otorhinolaryngol 2014; 18 - a2322
DOI: 10.1055/s-0034-1389012

Verbal Fluency and Deep Brain Stimulation: A Case Report

Bárbara Costa Beber 1, Aline Nunes da Cruz 1, Carlos Roberto de Mello Rieder 1, Marcia Lorena Fagundes Chaves 1
  • 1Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre

Introduction: The deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a technique to treat the Parkinson disease (PD). It is well described that the DBS produce reduction in the cardinal symptoms of PD. Tasks of verbal fluency evaluate executive functions and language, and little is known about how their performances are affected by the DBS.

Objectives: To describe the evaluation of verbal fluency in a case of PD before and after the DBS implantation.

Resumed Report: A 45-year-old man, native speaker of Brazilian Portuguese and with 15 years of education, was submitted to a surgery to implant the DBS in the subthalamic nucleus and consented in participate of research. This is a first case of a series of cases that is being carried out. The phonemic fluency (PF) (F, A, S), semantic fluency (SF) (animals) and the action fluency (AF) (verbs during 1 minute) were performed by the patient 1 week before the DBS implantation and 6 months after the DBS implantation. The scores for previous DBS implantation were PF = 15; SF = 15; and AF = 12. The scores after the DBS implantation were PF = 12; SF = 16; and AF = 7.

Conclusion: The patient showed deterioration on PF and AF after the DBS implantation. Both fluencies affected are supposed to be related with executive functions. The case highlights the necessity to investigate why some patients with PD show benefits of the cardinal symptoms but deterioration of other domains after the DBS implantation.