FRONTAL TESTS DO NOT DETECT FRONTAL INFARCTIONS AFTER RUPTURED INTRACRANIAL ANEURYSM

The series of 155 patients operated on for a ruptured intracranial art erial aneurysm was examined using typical frontal tests (the Stroop te st, word fluency tasks, and a sorting task), as well as a learning and memory test. Patients with frontal infarction were not significantly inferior to patients with non-frontal infarction or to patients with n o infarction. Frontal patients, however, were unable to return to work as often as non-frontal patients and more frequently than those with no infarction. These results indicate that the frontal tests used in t his study are not selectively sensitive to mainly medial frontal infar ctions that follow the rupture of an anterior cerebral artery aneurysm . (C) 1996 Academic Press, Inc.