AMNESIA AFTER UNILATERAL TEMPORAL LOBECTOMY - A CASE-REPORT

We report a mixed handed (L>R) patient with exclusive right cerebral l anguage representation who developed a permanent anterograde amnestic syndrome after right anterotemporal lobectomy. Preoperative neuropsych ological performance consisted of impaired verbal memory and normal no nverbal memory. Wada memory performance was asymmetrical for objects p resented soon after amobarbital injection in conjunction with no memor y asymmetry for items presented later in the Wada evaluation. Pre- and postoperative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans showed no struct ural lesions; however, postoperative MRI hippocampal volume measuremen ts suggested decreased hippocampal volume for the nonresected temporal lobe. These results confirm the risk of anterograde amnesia after uni lateral temporal lobectomy and demonstrate that baseline neuropsycholo gical testing may falsely literalize material-specific memory function s in patients with atypical cerebral language dominance.