What is aphasia?

It is a condition that affects the emission and understanding of verbal and written language, that is, it hinders or prevents spoken and written communication, it usually happens after suffering a stroke or brain trauma; although in other cases, its appearance is progressive when it is a consequence of some degenerative disease or when it is due to the development of a brain tumor.

Its level of intensity is given according to the direct cause of its existence and the severity of brain damage.

When aphasia’s origin is identified, the indicated treatment consists of intensive language therapies, both spoken and written, in which the aim is to recover the patient’s capacity for expression and comprehension, also providing them with new communication alternatives that provide tools to understand and be understood.

Types of aphasia:

• Of expression or not fluent:
  The patient understands what is said to them but has serious difficulties in expressing themselves.
• Fluid or complete:
  The patient has a fluent language, but the ideas they express are partially or totally meaningless, although they are not aware of their disability, having severe complications in understanding what they are told.
• Global:
  Serious expression and comprehension difficulties appear since the brain is seriously damaged in the language area.

• Spoken and written language is through short and grammatically poorly constructed sentences.
• Expression of ideas lacking in sense or logic.
• Confusion of words, substituting one for another.
• Saying non-existent words.
• Inability to understand what others say.

When you experience any of these symptoms for no apparent reason, go immediately to the ABC Medical Center Emergency Room, remember that aphasia is generally the result of a serious condition such as a stroke.

Once the doctor analyzes your symptoms and clinical history, he or she will perform a physical and neurological examination, before ordering an MRI or CT scan to discover the cause of aphasia.

It will also check your spoken and written language skills through simple and brief tests that can be of great help for diagnosis.

The treatment to follow focuses on language therapy to try to recover the damaged ability.

There is full recovery when brain damage is not serious, but when it is, it will only be partial, leaving a disability that affects the patient’s daily life and self-esteem.

Sometimes, language therapy is combined with medications that promote blood circulation in the brain and others that provide neurotransmitters to the damaged brain.

Today, alternative magnetic or electrical brain stimulation treatments are beginning to be used to treat aphasia, the purpose of which is to stimulate the affected neurons so that they perform their function properly.

So far they have shown good results, being hope for treating aphasia with the advantage that they are not invasive procedures and do not cause side effects.

At the Neurological Center, a select group of highly trained and certified doctors in the various neurological specialties are ready to assist you with the quality and warmth that characterizes us.

Nervous system specialties

• Neurology
• Neurosurgery
• Spine surgery
• Pediatric neurosurgery
• Neurophysiology
• Neuro-rehabilitation
• Neuro-pathology
• Interventional neuro-radiology
• Neuropsychology
• Neuro-oncology
• Neuro-otology
• Epilepsy
• Neuro-ophthalmology
• Neuroimaging

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Radiology and Molecular Imaging
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