Clinical neuropsychology and cerebral changes in isolated lesion of the right frontal lobe

We report the case of a 37 years old plumber who developed a severe frontal lobe syndrome with pronounced working memory deficits due to a bullet inju ry in the right prefrontal cortex. Despite the resulting morphological defe ct, the patient's symptoms were remitted at follow-up 11 months later To id entify the corresponding regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) changes, singl e photon emission computed tomographies (SPECT) were obtained three (SPECT 1) and eleven months (SPECT 2) after the injury. SPECT 1 showed a pronounce d hypoperfusion of both, the right and left frontal lobe, while in SPECT 2 hypoperfusion :was restricted to a small area primarely affected by the inj ury. These findings indicate that neuropsychological deficits after frontal lobe damage may resolve in the clinical course.