Salomón Hakim

Salomón Hakim was a Colombian neurosurgeon, researcher and inventor, born in 1922 and dead in 2011, a descendant of Lebanese immigrants. He studied medicine at the Universidad Nacional in Bogotá and trained in neurosurgery and neuropathology in the United States. While examining patients with degenerative brain disease he noticed enlarged brain ventricles without damage to the cortex and in 1957 recognized what is now called normal pressure hydrocephalus, publishing his work in 1964; the condition is also known as Hakim syndrome. Working in his home workshop in Bogotá he built a unidirectional valve with spring pressure control, introduced in 1966, on which modern hydrocephalus valves are based, and he held more than 28 United States patents. He taught at several Colombian universities and received a Hydrocephalus Association lifetime achievement award in 2010.