Turkish Neurosurgery
Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus Overshadowed by Traumatic and Degenerative Spinal Diseases: A New Assessment Proposal
HARUN DEMİRCİ1, PELİN KUZUCU2, ERDAL EROĞLU3, ABDULLAH SERİN4, ÖZDE ŞENOL4, MERVE BÜKE ŞAHİN5, SEMİH KESKİL6, PINAR ÖZIŞIK1
1Ankara Yıldirim Beyazit University Faculty of Medicine, Neurosurgery, ANKARA,
2Ankara City Hospital, Children’s Hospital Tower, Neurosurgery, ANKARA,
3TOBB University of Economics and Technology, Neurology, ANKARA,
4TOBB University of Economics and Technology, Neurosurgery, ANKARA,
5Hacettepe University, School of Medicine, Publıc Health, ANKARA,
6Yuksek Ihtisas University, Neurosurgery, ANKARA,
DOI: 10.5137/1019-5149.JTN.37051-21.3

Aim:Normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH) is a rare disorder among the elderly, characterized by gait disorder, dementia, and urinary incontinence. Considering the rareness of NPH and a lot of other pathologies, such as Parkinson\'s disease, lumbar spinal stenosis, and even aging cause similar symptoms, NPH is an underdiagnosed entity. However, the percentage of misdiagnosis is not given in the literature. Material and Methods:In this study, patients diagnosed with NPH were retrospectively screened between 2015 and May 2019 in our clinical database and Ste-P formula was applied. Example cases showed that some of the patients receive inaccurate medical and surgical treatments before being diagnosed with NPH. Results:As a result of the study was seen that a few out of 29 patients confused dizziness with trunkal ataxia or imbalance due to gait abnormality. As the time between onset of complaints and diagnosis increased, the value approached “zero”, and diagnosis became difficult.Conclusion:Every unnecessary operation carries serious risks that may threaten the life of the patient and decrease the quality of life. These surgeries and instrumentation materials used may also result to additional financial cost. Similarly, long-term use of Parkinson\'s and dementia medications has a serious economical burden on the insurance systems and is detrimental to the patient\'s health. Considering all these diagnoses and physiological conditions that can be easily confused with each other, we recommend in this article a new formula to reduce the possibility of misdiagnosis and treatment in patients with walking disorder.

Corresponding author : PELİN KUZUCU