Mutism after posterior fossa surgery. Review of the literature.

Mutism is an infrequent and transitory complication observed following posterior fossa surgery. Patients become mute in the immediate postoperative period, with restoration of speech within a few weeks. A review of the literature disclosed 157 patients with this condition. The anatomical structures thought to be involved are the connections between the cerebella dentate nucleous, the ventrolateral nucleous of the contalateral thalamus and the supplementary motor area. We reviewed 157 of cerebellar mutism; however several reports did not give sufficient information about the patients and 134 cases were selected for this study. The ages of the patients ranged from 2 to 61 years and the vermisat was the site of the tumour in 89% of the cases. All tumours were considered to be large or very large. The mutism lasted from 4 days to 52 months and was transient in all cases.