A case of acquired conduction aphasia in a child

A 10-year-old right-handed boy showed conduction aphasia with left-ear verbal extinction (paradoxical ipsilateral ear extinction) after removal of a arteriovenous malformation in the left parietal lobe. Buccofacial and ideomotor apraxia were not observed. Recovery from aphasia was dramatic. Postoperative computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging scans demonstrated damage confined to the left supramarginal gyrus invading the arcuate fasciculus. Together with recently reported cases of acquired fluent aphasia in children with CT-verified left posterior lesions, this case seems to support the current view that both fluent and nonfluent aphasia that share many similarities with the symptoms and lesion localization associated with adult cases may exist in children.