Three patients with normal pressure hydrocephalus and Parkinson's disease are 
reported. The recognition of this association is important because these two 
entities require specific therapeutic approaches. The presence of Parkinson's 
disease does not preclude an excellent response of the hydrocephalus to a 
shunting procedure. Although several reports of cases with the characteristic 
clinical manifestations of normal pressure hydrocephalus--progressive dementia, 
gait difficulty and urinary incontinence--have been published earlier, it was 
Adams and Hakim who emphasized the clinical triad and the effect of shunting the 
cerebrospinal fluid as a means of treatment. Messert and Baker stressed that the 
gait disturbance had a close resemblance to the freezing gait of parkinsonism. 
We are reporting three patients who had both conditions. Recognition of the 
existence of both disorders in the same patients is important since appropriate 
treatment of each of them led to marked improvement of their symptoms.