[Postraumatic klüver-Bucy syndrome--description and comparison of two clinical cases].

AIM: Klüver-Bucy syndrome was described in the fifties of the 20th century as a group of neuropsychological symptoms, such as visual agnosia, "oral" tendency, hypermetamorphosis, changes in behaviour, hyper-sexuality (homo-, hetero-, autosexuality) and changes in dietary habits (anorexia, bulimia) that may develop in humans after bilateral damage or dysfunction of the medial temporal lobes. The cause of Klüver-Bucy syndrome may be an injury, central nervous system infection, especially herpetic, Pick disease, temporal epilepsy and paraneoplastic encephalopathy. The condition is very rare in children; its occurrence in childhood was described in a few cases only. Symptom intensity and their manifestation depend on numerous diversified factors.

METHODS

A comparative presentation of two clinical cases of Klüver-Bucy syndrome following severe head injuries accompanied by description of computed tomography scans.

RESULTS

The diagnosis of the syndrome does not require the presence of all the axial symptoms. Both patients were treated with carbamazepine. Regression of neuropsychological symptoms took a different course in each child, despite their similar brain damage.

CONCLUSIONS

Fully symptomatic Klüver-Bucy syndrome is very rare. The psychological status of patients with this disorder depends not only on the extent of the lesion, but also on pre-injury emotional and intellectual development and post-injury social stimulation.