Case Report: Epilepsy-related pure word deafness in the elderly: an underreported presentation?
Toshiaki Takehara, Koji Hayashi, Mamiko Sato and 7 others
PMID 41940041WHAT IT FOUND
An elderly man with epilepsy could not understand spoken words but could read and write.
His hearing was normal. This rare speech problem resolved in 20 days. Clinicians should check for this when elderly patients seem deaf after a seizure.
Key findings
01The patient had severe difficulty understanding spoken language and repeating words, while his ability to read and follow written instructions remained intact.
02Pure-tone audiometry showed normal hearing thresholds, and he could correctly identify non-verbal environmental sounds.
03The language impairment improved significantly within 20 days, coinciding with the resolution of the post-ictal state.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
This is a single case report, so it cannot establish how common this presentation is or how reliably it resolves. EEG did not show definitive epileptiform discharges, making the diagnosis of epilepsy-related symptoms inferential rather than confirmed by electrophysiology. The specific cause of the epilepsy (e.g., Alzheimer's disease) was not confirmed because biomarkers were not tested. The patient had other cognitive deficits (executive dysfunction, visuospatial issues) that complicate isolating the pure word deafness component.
Declared interests
The authors declared that no financial support was received for this work.
The easy way to misread this
Do not generalize this recovery timeline to all patients with post-ictal language deficits. This was a single case where symptoms resolved in 20 days; other patients may have permanent damage or different underlying causes like stroke or neurodegenerative disease.
Summarised by AI from the full paper, without a clinician reviewing it. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →