Crossed Wernicke’s Aphasia With Focal Clonic Cluster Seizures With Secondary Generalization Mimicking Faciobrachial Seizures Following a Right Middle-Cerebral-Artery Ischemic Stroke: A Novel Phenotypic Presentation

Abstract

Crossed Wernicke’s aphasia (CWA) following a stroke is a rare clinical phenomenon, particularly when associated with seizures. This case report presents a unique instance of crossed CWA accompanied by focal clonic cluster seizures affecting the left arm and face, with secondary generalization, in a monolingual Bengali-speaking patient following a right middle cerebral artery ischemic stroke. The patient, a 70-year-old male from rural India, presented with acute behavioral abnormalities and language impairment. He experienced left-sided focal motor-onset clonic seizures with impaired awareness, followed by fluent yet unintelligible speech, characterized by phonemic and semantic paraphasias, as well as neologistic jargon. Neuroimaging revealed a right parieto-occipital infarct. Although initially misdiagnosed and treated for acute psychosis, thorough clinical evaluation ultimately led to the diagnosis of CWA—a rare form of aphasia in a right-handed individual after a right hemisphere stroke. This case underscores the diagnostic challenges associated with stroke-related language disorders and highlights the importance of recognizing variations in language lateralization. Furthermore, the occurrence of CWA in a Bengali-speaking individual emphasizes the potential impact of linguistic and cultural factors on brain organization and language processing. This case also adds to the limited body of literature regarding the co-occurrence of post-stroke seizures and aphasia, particularly in atypical presentations such as CWA.