Mutism after posterior fossa surgery. Review of the literature

Mutism is an infrequent and transitory complication observed following post erior fossa surgery. Patients become mute in the immediate postoperative pe riod, with restoration of speech within a few weeks. A review of the litera ture disclosed 157 patients with this condition. The anatomical structures thought to be involved are the connections between the cerebella dentate nu cleous, the ventrolateral nucleous of the contalateral thalamus and the sup plementary motor area. We reviewed 157 of cerebellar mutism; however severa l reports did not give sufficient information about the patients and 134 ca ses were selected for this study. The ages of the patients ranged from 2 to 61 years and the vermisat was the site of the tumour in 89% of the cases. All tumours were considered to be large or very large. The mutism lasted fr om 4 days to 52 months and was transient in all cases. (C) 2001 Elsevier Sc ience B.V. All rights reserved.