Hakim syndrome is an alternative term that describes a condition called normotensive hydrocephalus. This type of hydrocephalus mostly affects people who are over the age of sixty. The symptoms of this disease are sometimes confused with the symptoms of other diseases. That is why it is worth knowing the characteristic signs of Hakim's syndrome in order to be able to react in time and accurately diagnose this disorder. This way, a patient who suffers from normotensive hydrocephalus can be treated more quickly and also has a much better chance of a positive prognosis.
Hydrocephalus, which is also known as hydrocephalus, is a condition in which there is a pathological buildup of cerebrospinal fluid within the ventricular system of the brain. This can lead to an increase in intracranial pressure. This fluid is a specific fluid that fills the subarachnoid space, the spinal canal and the ventricular system. Production and absorption of cerebrospinal fluid are identical at a rate of 0.3 ml/minute. Hydrocephalus develops when there is any kind of abnormality in the circulation and reabsorption of fluid or when there is excessive production of fluid.
Hydrocephalus is a type of congenital or acquired defect. Congenital hydrocephalus develops already at the stage of fetal life and can be caused by genetic factors or toxic factors from the external environment. Acquired hydrocephalus may appear basically at any moment of life and may be a result of meningitis, trauma or compression of cerebrospinal fluid outflow, brain tumors or intracranial bleeding.
Types of hydrocephalus also include:
- internal hydrocephalus,
- external hydrocephalus,
- mixed hydrocephalus,
- ex vacuo hydrocephalus.
In turn, internal hydrocephalus can be divided into:
- occlusive hydrocephalus,
- communicating hydrocephalus,
- aresorptive hydrocephalus.
Hakim's syndrome is additionally characterized by the mere impairment of outflow or overproduction of cerebrospinal fluid with enlargement of the following internal or external fluid spaces. Normotensive hydrocephalus runs with an average normal intracranial pressure.
In fifty percent of cases, Hakim syndrome is idiopathic. What does this mean? It means nothing else, that the disorder appears spontaneously or has an unexplained origin. In the remaining patients, secondary normotensive hydrocephalus is found, which occurs precisely as a result of impaired circulation of cerebrospinal fluid. Among the causes then mentioned are primarily:
- past brain surgery and possible complications after surgery within the brain itself,
- head trauma,
- subarachnoid hemorrhage,
- brain tumors,
- blood clots,
- meningitis,
- post-radiotherapy,
- brain tumor.
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