How it began
Salomón Hakim was a Colombian neurosurgeon who had built electrical circuits and radios as a boy and studied medicine at the Universidad Nacional in Bogotá. In 1957, at the Hospital San Juan de Dios in Bogotá, he identified the condition now called normal pressure hydrocephalus. Working in his home workshop in Bogotá, he then developed a valve to treat hydrocephalus more safely, and introduced it to the medical community in 1966.
Before it existed
The first valve for treating hydrocephalus had been introduced in 1949 by Spitz. According to the Hydrocephalus Society, that valve had several disadvantages which sometimes put the patient's life at risk. Hakim had treated his first patients with normal pressure hydrocephalus by removing some cerebrospinal fluid.
How it works
Hydrocephalus is a buildup of cerebrospinal fluid in the ventricles of the brain. A shunt drains the excess fluid, and the valve in the shunt controls the flow. Hakim's valve lets fluid pass in one direction only and regulates its pressure with a spring that presses a synthetic sapphire ball into a stainless steel cone.
Who pushed back
When Hakim published his work on normal pressure hydrocephalus in 1964 and contacted the American neurologist Raymond Adams, Adams rejected the idea. Hakim later traveled to Massachusetts General Hospital with a patient from Colombia and treated the patient there, with a sudden improvement. Adams then took an interest and the findings were published.
Where it stands today
The Hydrocephalus Society states that modern valves are built on Hakim's invention. He held more than 28 United States patents. His son Carlos Hakim, working with him, developed a programmable valve that can be adjusted through the skin. Normal pressure hydrocephalus is also called Hakim syndrome. Hakim died in 2011.
