Expert: Claes-Gustaf Nordquist, M.D. - 9/5/2008

Question
My son had an epidermoid cyst removed from the left hemisphere, center of his brain this past Feb. He has been recovering nicely and attended rehab for therapy following the surgery. He was released from therapy and seemed to have regained his physical strength (he was "dropping his right foot") and we have been keeping an eye out for problems at school (he's now in the 5th grade). With the school year starting, he came to us with a concern about his short term memory retention. He feels like the teacher is speaking a foreign language that he understands at the time but seems to "leave him" later when he tries to apply what he was taught. They did testing at the release of rehab and at school last year as he left 4th grade to see if there was a need for resources. He seemed to pass all of these. My question then is, can problems arise later due to the "healing process" of the surgery or some other cause? We've had 2 CAT scans (no contrast) since the surgery that came back fine. He's also taking Trileptal for seizures.
Thank you for your time and let me know if you need more information.

Answer
I'm a medical oncologist & radiation therapist with experience of treating (mainly malignant) brain tumors. This is a purely surgical situation and I'm not a neurosurgeon. So you should direct this question to an expert of either neurology or neurosurgery since it is outside my area of expertise.