Improvement of aphasia deficits following traumatic intracranial hemorrhage: a case report.

Aphasia is a common and disabling consequence of dominant-hemisphere brain injury, and the pharmacological options after traumatic intracranial hemorrhage are limited. A 69-year-old man developed severe aphasia after traumatic intracranial hemorrhage. On day 7 after traumatic brain injury (TBI), he was transferred for inpatient rehabilitation, where the Korean version of the Western Aphasia Battery (K-WAB) showed marked language impairment, with an Aphasia Quotient (AQ) of 66.2 (scale 0-100; higher scores indicate better language function). He received intravenous Cerebrolysin, 30 mL/day infused over 60 minutes, for 21 consecutive days, together with daily speech-language therapy. By day 28, the AQ had risen to 97.1, with gains in both expressive and receptive language, and no adverse events were recorded. Spontaneous subacute recovery and the concurrent speech-language therapy may account for the change, and a single patient cannot establish an effect; the time course and the size of the change nonetheless raise the possibility of an adjunctive neurorestorative contribution from Cerebrolysin in post-traumatic hemorrhagic aphasia. Controlled studies in TBI populations are needed.