The aim of this investigation was to evaluate improvement of executive functions after shunt surgery in patients with early normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH). Patients with NPH were assessed before and after shunt surgery with tests shown to be sensitive to damage to the prefrontal cortex (PFC). Significant differences were found between basal and follow-up performances on the Boston Naming Test, the backwards digits span, Part B of the Trail Making Test, and the number of words produced on the phonological fluency task. In conclusion, our study reveals that patients with NPH who respond positively to continuous slow lumbar cerebral spinal fluid drainage and receive a ventriculoperitoneal shunt implant, improve their performance on tasks of executive function. Due to the high demand for this form of mental processing in real-life complex scenarios, and based on the severe executive deficits present in both demented and non-demented NPH patients, we encourage the assessment of executive functions in this clinical group.

中文翻译：

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分流手术后正常压力脑积水的执行功能改善。

本研究的目的是评估早期正常压力脑积水 (NPH) 患者分流手术后执行功能的改善。NPH 患者在分流手术前后进行了评估，测试显示对前额叶皮层 (PFC) 的损伤很敏感。在波士顿命名测试的基础和后续表现之间发现了显着差异，向后数字跨度，小径测试的 B 部分，以及在语音流畅性任务中产生的单词数。总之，我们的研究表明，对持续缓慢的腰椎脑脊液引流有积极反应并接受脑室腹腔分流植入物的 NPH 患者，其执行功能任务的表现有所改善。