The aphasia is the total or partial loss of the ability to speak as a result of an injury that occurred in areas of the brain intended for the language. It is a failure in the language centers of the brain that impedes or diminishes the ability to make oneself understood through the spoken word, writing or signs. However, the affected person retains intelligence and phonatory organs.
The term was coined by Armand Trousseau, a French expert who served as a professor of medicine at the Hotel-Dieu hospital. The word aphasia originates from a Greek word that in Spanish is understood as the “impossibility of speaking”.
Experts say that aphasia can arise from trauma or as a consequence of infection in the brain. The stroke (which may be triggered by a thrombotic ischaemia or emboli, for example), head trauma (caused in general by an accident) and infections localized or diffuse (such as brain abscess or encephalitis) are some of those responsible for a picture of aphasia.
However, experts emphasize that the main cause of aphasia is that a person suffers from a stroke. A disease that translates into damage to the brain as a consequence of a broken vessel or an interruption in what is normal blood supply.
It should also be noted that aphasias can be cortical (due to perisylvian injury), transcortical or anomic. Cortical aphasia is the most common, while transcortical is characterized by preservation of repetition. Anomic aphasia, lastly, is the mildest.
However, according to Digopaul, the most common classification of aphasia is as follows: drill or major motor aphasia, transcortical motor aphasia, Wernicke’s aphasia, global, conduction, and amnesia.
The first of the aforementioned is characterized by being one of the most complex variables that seriously affects both language and writing, so much so that even in its acute phase the patient himself is not only mute but also does not understand and In addition, it also does not have the capacity to communicate.
No less serious is Wernicke’s Aphasia, which is the one that occurs in patients in whom, although they have fluent speech, they experience serious problems in what is comprehension, even leading to total incomprehension of everything they are told or told. they listen. However, in the recovery process of these patients, great achievements can be achieved.
Thus, in this specific case, health professionals recommend that they make use of computers in rehabilitation therapies because, among other things, they allow them to carry out the communication they want but that in principle they cannot do on their own. But it is only a matter of time before they can recover.
To treat aphasia, it is recommended to combat and / or control the underlying disease that has generated it. There are cases, however, in which the person can recover from aphasia without the need for treatment. This spontaneous recovery usually occurs after a transient ischemic attack (TIA), where the blood flow to the brain is interrupted for a moment (although it can be restored quickly).
