Left fornical crus injury and verbal memory impairment in a patient with head trauma.

A 28-year-old man who had suffered a traffic accident underwent conservative management for diffuse axonal injury and intracerebral hemorrhage in the left temporal lobe. Brain MRI (3 months after onset; fig. 1) showed a leukomalactic lesion in the corpus callosum and an old hemorrhage at the left temporal lobe and pons. The Memory Assessment Scale score for verbal memory (86: 18th percentile) was significantly decreased compared with that of visual memory (113: 81th percentile). Diffusion tensor tractography for fornix (fig. 1) showed a disruption of the left fornical crus. The selective verbal memory impairment of this patient seemed to be mainly ascribed to the left fornical crus injury.