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Laura S. Paré, M.D.
Neurosurgeon

Patient Jeanne Folmer lived for more than a year with constantly falls, urinary incontinence and increasing forgetfulness before she sought treatment for what she feared was Alzheimer’s disease or dementia.

An MRI eventually showed that the ventricles of Folmer’s brain were enlarged, a tell-tale indicator of Alzheimer’s but also of other conditions, including normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH), or water on the brain. The often misdiagnosed condition — especially in seniors like Folmer — is a specialty of UC Irvine neurosurgeon Dr. Laura S. Paré, the seventh doctor to evaluate the Tustin woman’s condition.

Paré believes that 5 percent of the estimated 7.5 million Americans suffering from some form of dementia have NPH, which is highly treatable. But of that 375,000, only 11,000 are being treated for NPH.

"We think there are a lot of people out there who are undiagnosed and going untreated," Paré told the Orange County Register. "A lot of primary care physicians don't know much about it," she said, adding that a lot of seniors don't get help because they assume they're "just getting old."

Paré implanted a shunt in Folmer’s brain that drained excess fluid to her abdominal cavity to be reabsorbed by the body. Today, Paré can count Folmer, now 71, among the 86 percent of NPH patients who recover much of their balance, urinary control and memory.

“It was like a cloud that just lifted,” Folmer told CBS 2 News reporter Dave Lopez.

To read the Orange County Register article »

To view the Lopez report, which aired on KCAL-TV 9 KCBS-TV2 »

Learn more about Dr. Paré»