Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus
In the United States, there are an estimated 375,000 people suffering from normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH). Of these, only about 11,500 have actually been treated with surgical implantation of a shunt—that’s less than 3% of those afflicted. This statistic is particularly significant when you consider that NPH is the only form of dementia that can be controlled or potentially reversed with treatment. Since NPH is often mistaken for other disorders, most cases of NPH go unreported and many are left untreated.

Normal pressure hydrocephalus is an excessive build-up of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in the ventricles of the brain occurring most often in people over the age of 60. Diagnosing NPH can be difficult because the key symptoms of the disease are also associated with other disorders like Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease, as well as with the normal aging process. The number of cases of NPH is expected to grow as the elderly population increases.