Rehabilitation of Auditory Agnosia Following Bilateral Intracerebral Bleeding

We reported a case of auditory agnosia following bilateral intracerebral bleeding. A 56-year-old man was admitted to our rehabilitation hospital with disorder in cognition of human voices and environmental sounds. He suffered from intracerebral bleeding in right temporal lobe and in left putaminal hemorrage prior to this admission. He had no other cognitive disorders, and bilateral moderate sensorineural hearing loss was revealed by pure-tone audiometry. He could not recognize human voices or other kinds of environmental sounds. However he could communicate by writing, and his spontaneous talking was normal. Auditory brainstem response (ABR) was normal, but middle latency response (MLR) indicated impairments of left auditory radiation and right primary auditory cortex. We introduced lip-reading rehabilitation and educated the patient and his family. After 2 months, he could communicate with his family by listening and lip-reading, but he sometimes needed writing when he communicated with other medical staffs.