Four-year prognosis of stroke patients with visuospatial inattention.

The four-year prognosis of patients with visuospatial inattention in a stroke register (altogether 255 patients) was studied. Sixty-six surviving patients under the age of 65 were examined neurologically and neuropsychologically after 3 months and 1 year from stroke. Fifty-two of these 66 patients were still reexamined after 4 years from onset. Twelve patients with ischaemic brain infarction had visuospatial inattention: 7 had a clear-cut and contralateral neglect and 5 had milder and less lateralized inattention. The recovery of these 12 patients was poorer in ADL than the other 54 patients. Even when hemiparesis was taken into account, the difference still existed in ADL. The recovery of the 7 neglect patients was poorer than that of the 5 inattention patients. During the follow-up the visuospatial neglect persisted in all 7 cases and the visuospatial inattention disappeared in only one case.