Idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus: A critical analysis of its underrepresentation across Italian medical-scientific societies in the last 5 years.

Abstract

Background: The scientific debate concerning clinical, translational and surgical aspects of iNPH could still be limited in respect to the incidence of this condition. The aim of this paper is to systematically assess the extent of the debate on INPH in the context of the congresses of the relevant medical and scientific societies in our Country.

Methods: We thoroughly examined the websites and scientific programs of 12 leading scientific societies linked to medical specialities involved in diagnosis and management of INPH, among which the neurological, neurosurgical, neurophysiological, rehabilitation medicine and urologic societies. The amount of time (in hours) was examined in a time span of events which took place between 2019 and 2023.

Results: Notably, across 4 years (2019-2023), a total of 7 out of 12 (58.3%) of the aforementioned leading scientific societies dedicated a total of zero minutes to the topic "iNPH", two further societies hosted talks for a total of less than one hours concerning such condition. The amount of time dedicated to giant intracranial aneurysms and vestibular schwannomas was in respect to the incidence of the conditions, significantly longer than the time spent debating on iNPH.

Conclusions: The results demonstrates that in our country, despite the high and increasing incidence of INPH, the awareness raised on the topic could still be limited, especially compared to other, significantly rarer intracranial conditions such as giant intracranial aneurysms and vestibular schwannomas.