PURPOSE: to characterize the population of patients with neurological lesion with communication disorders, assisted by a Tertiary Hospital. Specific objectives0 to check the prevalence of each type of speech and / or language disorder, neurological etiologies and the origin of the referrals for the total of the patients. METHOD: we analyzed all medical records of seen patients in the past 5 years (2002 to 2006) from the outpatient clinic of Acquired Neurological Disorders - Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology (UNIFESP) through a retrospective study. RESULT: the study showed 244 cases in the period from 2002 to 2006. As for the characterization of the sample, the following data were found, namely: for gender, 56% were men; 44.3% aged from 41 to 64 years; for schooling, 39.8% of the patients had 1 to 4 year schooling; for the referrals 35.7% were from the Neurology outpatient clinic of UNIFESP; for the injury etiology 69.3% were diagnosed with stroke. Aphasia and dysartrhias were the most common disorders. CONCLUSION: the stroke and traumatic brain injury stood out as the etiology that most attached the patients; In relation to the overall number of evaluated cases, it was found that 50% of the group have had rehabilitation program and the majority of the patients were referred from the service of Neurology, Hospital São Paulo - UNIFESP.
Communication Disorders; Brain Injuries; Epidemiology
