CEREBELLAR MUTISM FOLLOWING AN INTERNAL HEAD INJURY: REPORT OF A RARE CASE FROM SOUTH INDIA

Amaresh Deginal¹ and Arunima Poulose^2,

¹Department of Neurosurgery, S.Nijalingappa Medical College & HSK Hospital, Bagalkot – Karnataka

²Department of General Surgery, S.Nijalingappa Medical College & HSK Hospital, Bagalkot – Karnataka.

Cite this paper:
Amaresh Deginal and Arunima Poulose. CEREBELLAR MUTISM FOLLOWING AN INTERNAL HEAD INJURY: REPORT OF A RARE CASE FROM SOUTH INDIA. International Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research. 2019; 7(1):17-22. doi: 10.12691/ijcdr-7-1-3

Abstract

The muteness in an otherwise cognitively normal individual following cerebellar lesion is known as cerebellar mutism. Over 400 cases have been documented since 1985 but almost all occur as a result of posterior fossa surgeries rather than closed head trauma. The principal cause of cerebellar mutism is due to bilateral interruption of the dentato–thalamo–cortical pathway (DTC). This is a case report of a 3 year old male child who suffered from a closed head injury involving the right lobe of cerebellum. He later developed mutism and recovered spontaneously. Due to its atypical presentation, we reviewed articles to conclude on a pure clinical diagnosis and throw light into a probable variant form of cerebellar mutism in children.

Keywords:
Cerebellar mutism Closed head injury Pediatric mutism Dentate nuclei

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