[Supplementary motor area syndrome with frontal glioma]

The supplementary motor area (SMA) is a region located within each cerebral hemisphere at the posterior medial border of the frontal lobe. It is considered to play an important role in planning, initiating and maintaining sequential motor actions. In this report, we aimed to confirm or invalidate the somatotopic organization of the SMA, correlates the pattern of clinical symptoms observed after SMA removal with the extent of resection. Althogh there was no apparent change shown in the monitoring of intraoperative motor evoked potential (MEP), four patients displayed postoperative SMA syndrome on the side of the body contralateral to the SMA resection. All patients developed postoperative severe hemiplegia. One dominant frontal glioma patient was followed by transient mutism and motor aphasia. In this study, there is no correlation between extent of SMA resection and postoperative clinical pattern of deficits.