ABSTRACT
HISTORY AND EPONYMS Normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH) was introduced as a treatable clinical entity by Hakim and Adams in 1965 (1). They described a syndrome consisting of gait disturbance, urinary incontinence, dementia, normal intracranial pressure (ICP), and ventriculomegaly on radiological examination. The symptoms improved after shunt operation, and notably the recognition of a “reversible” form of dementia brought great attention to NPH. Subsequently, patients fulfilling the description were enthusiastically shunted. However, less-encouraging shunt results ensued, and research into the selection of shunt responsive patients and understanding the underlying pathophysiology has been ongoing since.
