Salomón Hakim: the man behind normal pressure hydrocephalus

White matter lesions and normal-pressure hydrocephalus: Binswanger disease or Hakim syndrome?

In 1894, Otto Binswanger [1] described a clinical form of dementia in the elderly characterized by subcortical white matter lesions, "enormously enlarged ventricles, " normal cerebral cortex, and "severe atheromatosis of the arteries of the brain" and concluded, "It is very likely that the subcortical loss of fibers is caused by the deficiency of the blood supply resulting from arteriosclerosis...

Normal pressure hydrocephalus.

Normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH) is a reversible disorder characterized by gait impairment, subcortical dementia, and urinary urgency and incontinence associated with impaired cerebrospinal fluid circulation and ventriculomegaly. Treatment with shunt surgery is most likely to increase mobility, and may also improve dementia and urinary symptoms. An international, independent study group rece...

Idiopathic Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus

Idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus (iNPH) is a potentially reversible neurodegenerative disease commonly characterized by a triad of dementia, gait, and urinary disturbance. Advancements in diagnosis and treatment have aided in properly identifying and improving symptoms in patients. However, a large proportion of iNPH patients remain either undiagnosed or misdiagnosed. Using PubMed searc...

Normal pressure hydrocephalus

Results: Forty-one patients underwent an invasive diagnostic procedure for evaluation of suspected NPH; 13 ultimately received shunts, representing an incidence of 1.19/100,000/year. The incidence of sustained definite improvements at 3 years after shunting was only 0.36/ 100,000/year. Definite gait improvement was documented in 75% at 3–6 months after shunt placement, although it dropped to 50...

Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus