Relação entre afasia e trombólise: a opinião dos terapeutas da fala

The treatment of ischemic stroke with thrombolysis can be considered relatively recent. Having been established the therapeutic effect of the treatment, its effects at the level of recovery of stroke sequels are less well known, in particular in regard to aphasia. In cases where the recanalization of blood flow is partial, as seems to happen with thrombolysis, injury may display different characteristics from those that would be expected, if the territory of a particular artery was totally damaged. Thus, raising the hypothesis that language disorders occurring in individuals submitted to thrombolysis, exhibit less common or atypical characteristics. The aim of this study is to test this hypothesis indirectly by systemized collection of the perception that speech therapists have about the implications/consequences of thrombolytic treatment in the characteristics of aphasia. To this end, was built an online questionnaire that was answered by 35 speech therapists, but only 22 met the inclusion criteria. Results showed that of the 22 subjects, 9 considered that people with aphasia submitted to thrombolysis present sometimes atypical characteristics of language or less common and 8 mention that almost always or always these characteristics are present. Of the remaining, 5 reported that this rarely or never occurred. As regards other alterations in the cognitive context and/or of the behavior that are atypical or less common, half of the subjects refer that sometimes these alterations happen. Relative to recovery of aphasia, over half of the subjects consider that occur atypical characteristics or less common in the acute phase. Results emphasize the need to analyze this matter in a more profound, because they are indirectly indicative of the existence of differences in the language disorders in people with aphasia, dependent of the fact of having been or not submitted to thrombolytic treatment.