Total aphasia after a stroke is a complete loss of speech functions. This is due to the fact that the cerebral cortex is damaged. The same phenomenon can occur due to a tumor in the brain, trauma. The prognosis of total aphasia after a stroke will be determined by the location of the lesion. The severity of this pathology also varies. Sometimes articulation is difficult slightly, and sometimes a person ceases to understand speech or loses the ability to express a thought.
Forms
The first time after damage, the patient most often suffers from complete loss of speech. This is the most severe form of aphasia - total. Symptoms are manifested in a lack of understanding of human speech. Sometimes the disease is replaced by milder forms - sensory or motor. In such cases, the patient recognizes the words, realizes everything, but he expresses himself only by means of an “embolus” - this is one and the same sound, sometimes the intonations change.
The semantic form is manifested in violations of the occipital region. As a result, a person does not understand complex sentences, the relationship between them in the text.
The amnestic form is characteristic of those who have a damaged temporal zone. Patients understand speech in general, but lose their ability to recognize a number of objects.
Afferent aphasia is characterized by the fact that the patient confuses similar letters, can rearrange sounds in syllables. The dynamic form is manifested in the understanding of speech, attempts to answer, but the words are not placed correctly, and as a result the phrase becomes meaningless. Man is aware of this, but phenomena of this kind are not subject to him.
Broca aphasia occurs in those who have lost normal activity in a certain part of the brain - the center of Broca. It ensures consistent articulation. As a result, a person is able to reproduce individual words, pauses, and it is difficult for him to switch from one syllable to another. In writing, similar phenomena also occur. In this case, the patient often pronounces nearby words whose meaning is the opposite. He often obsesses with the same sound.
Touch form
Sensory aphasia is manifested in a lack of understanding of speech. In this case, the patient does not understand himself and others, but he is still able to speak. Such a violation occurs when the temporal lobe of the brain is damaged. Usually the patient speaks very actively, but does not understand what exactly.
Pathology manifests itself in constant delirium from the patient - he can invent new words, change words in places. His proposals are simply not related to each other. The second variety of the same form is manifested in a misunderstanding of others - the patient hears sounds, but does not understand what they mean.
Motor form
This form is characterized by the loss of one’s own speech, despite the fact that a person is aware of everything, distinguishes the words of others. Pathology occurs if the frontal lobe of the brain is damaged. The patient is hardly able to utter a word, he can only give syllables. His speech is hardly distinguishable, but he uses gestures, so that someone can understand him. Dialogue in this case is possible, since the person himself understands everything.
Treatment
Even in the case of total aphasia, treatment is most often successful. There are separate programs for returning speech functions to a patient. They are selected in accordance with the individual characteristics of the person.
Treatment became possible due to the impact directly on the damaged areas of the brain, which act as the cause of the disorders. In cases where the patient shows signs of total aphasia, he is immediately sent to a speech therapist.
Risk group
Most often, the pathology occurs in the elderly. This is a consequence of the most serious diseases of the brain - stroke, tumor, trauma. In childhood, total aphasia occurs with organic brain lesions. As a rule, this happens after the child has mastered the speech. As a result, a person suffers from the breakdown of speech, which has already been formed earlier. Most often, the process ends with disability.
With a diagnosis of total aphasia, many difficulties appear in the patient's life. Usually he loses his job, it is difficult for him in everyday life. It becomes difficult for him to understand people, to express their own desires. As a result, he becomes aggressive, irritable.
Diagnostics
A neurologist diagnoses such ailments. First of all, he collects complaints from the patient. A neurological examination is also necessary to detect the omission of the corners of the lips, violations in the movement of the tongue, determine the mobility of the limbs.
An additional diagnosis is tomography - in the course of such a study, pathological changes in brain tissue are detected. Electroencephalography is also carried out, determining the most active parts of the brain. Angiography is aimed at analyzing vascular patency.
Additional treatment
Depending on the characteristics of total aphasia in a particular patient, treatment can be supplemented with surgical intervention - for example, removal of a tumor, hemorrhage. Necessary and drugs - nootropics, angioprotectors. Rehabilitation is carried out, including physical therapy methods, physiotherapy.
The second stage of treatment includes speech therapist services. It is he who will pick up all the necessary exercises in order for speech to recover as quickly as possible.
It is important that therapy begins as soon as possible. Exercises are performed on a daily basis. Both spoken and written language is adjusted. In rare, exceptional cases, aphasia disappears by itself, even without treatment. But you should never count on it. As a rule, pathology is treated for a long time, it requires labor, and if the condition is met, healing will be possible.
Hemiplegia
Total aphasia, hemiplegia are very similar. The latter is characterized by paralysis - with such a pathology, a person loses the ability to move limbs. Very often, these diseases go hand in hand. A person who has suffered a serious illness loses both speech and the ability to move limbs.
First steps
In cases where a person tries to say something to his family, but only something incoherent comes out that is not understandable to anyone, or words are given that are absolutely not suitable for the situation, this is aphasia. The reason is the death of certain brain cells that are responsible for speech. And so that the patient does not end up in a prolonged depression, does not make an attempt to commit suicide because of his own feelings, treatment should be started as soon as possible. For the most part, the patient's relatives will be involved in the treatment.
The human brain has several interconnected centers that are responsible for speech. Each center is responsible for its own separate function - for understanding speech, reproducing words, analyzing what is heard. Centers of the brain communicate with each other due to nerve endings. They are located in different parts of the brain. Some centers are located symmetrically - in both hemispheres. But some are found only in one share.
With a stroke, a certain part of the brain dies. In cases where nerve endings turn out to be damaged, which provide a connection between different areas of the brain, and total aphasia occurs. Sometimes the violations concern only written speech - in this case they are called alexia, agraphia.