Skip to main content
Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry logoLink to Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry
. 2001 Aug;71(2):268–271. doi: 10.1136/jnnp.71.2.268

Neuropsychological and psychiatric complications in endoscopic third ventriculostomy: a clinical case report

A Benabarre 1, J Ibanez 1, T Boget 1, J Obiols 1, A Martinez-Aran 1, E Vieta 1
PMCID: PMC1737515  PMID: 11459910

Abstract

The clinical case report of a patient who underwent an endoscopic third ventriculostomy for the treatment of a slit ventricle syndrome is presented. After surgery the patient developed a severe complication consisting of an organic personality disorder, characterised by impulsiveness, physical heteroaggressiveness, binge eating, hypersomnia and impairment of memory, and frontal-executive functions.
A frontal lobe lesion may explain some of the symptoms presented, such as the uncontrolled impulses, the aggressive behaviour, and even the binge eating. However, a longitudinal neuropsychological evaluation showed a severe deficit in immediate memory and difficulties in planning and consolidation of newly learned information, which may be best related to damage in the frontal basal structures of the brain: the fornix and its connection to the hippocampus and the mamillary bodies. Postoperative MR images confirmed the clinical hypothesis. The emergence of such a severe organic personality disorder and cognitive disturbances as a psychiatric complication of an endoscopic third ventriculostomy has not, it seems, been previously reported elsewhere. Clinicians should take these possible complications into account when recommending this so-called minimally invasive neuroendoscopic procedure.



Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (150.4 KB).


Articles from Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry are provided here courtesy of BMJ Publishing Group

RESOURCES