Some objective measurements of frontal lobe deficits following traumatic brain injury

The current study attempted to determine: 1) If frontal lobe TBI produces specific long-term cognitive deficits that are measurable on objective testing; and 2) Which tests are most appropriate for assessing frontal deficits. The study involved 41 patients: 10 sustaining TBI with frontal lesions on CT, 11 sustaining TBI without frontal lesions, and 20 controls. TBI subjects were included only if they were evaluated as outpatients to ensure that their cognitive deficits were stable, and not due to acute injury. The results suggest that: 1) Frontal lobe TBI produces a specific profile of cognitive deficits (characterized as inflexibility), with relative deficits on the Trail Making Test Part B and Rey AVLT that 6 (not trials 1-5), but generally intact performance on other cognitive measures: and 2) Tests useful in evaluating global cognitive dysfunction (i e, Rey AVLT) may need to be used differently for the specific evaluation of frontal lobe dysfunction.