A case of Kennedy terminal ulcer in a 17th-century Italian mummy
https://doi.org/10.4081/dr.2024.9956
Accepted: 15 March 2024
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
Giacomo Torno was born in 1539 (or 1541) in Naples. At the age of 18 he joined the Clerics Regular Theatines in San Paolo Maggiore and was welcomed on 30 October 1558. He suffered a stroke on 4 December 1608 and died 45 days later. Contemporary sources report that he appeared to be tormented by the devil during his illness, tormented by constant spasms in his arm, which caused him great discomfort. During the analysis of his mummified body, a discontinuity of the skin surface at the level of the sacrum was discovered. All morphological features indicate a wound that developed during the subject’s life. Based on historical sources, the fracture of the first coccygeal vertebra, the appearance of the lesion near death, and the shape of the lesion, it appears that this is the first recorded instance of the Kennedy terminal ulcer, identified through both direct and indirect sources
Del Tufo GB. Historia della religione de’ Padri Chierici Regolari in cui si contiene la fondatione e progresso di lei infino a quest’anno 1609 / raccolta e posta in luce da Monsignor D. Gio. Battista Del Tufo, vescovo di Acerra dell’istessa Religione. Paolini GF e S, editor. Roma; 1609.
Del Tufo GB. Supplimento alla Historia della religione de’ padri cherici regolari raccolta e posta in luce da monsignor Gio. Battista del Tufo. Mascardi appresso I, editor. Roma; 1616.
Castaldo Pescara GB. Vita del santissimo pontefice Paolo Quarto fondatore della religione de chierici regolari, e memorie d’altri cinquanta celebri Padri, Raccolte, e descritte dal p.d.Gio.Battista Castaldo dell’istessa religione. Mascardi G, editor. Roma: Giacomo Mascardi; 1615. 286–295 p.
D`Engenio Caracciolo C. Napoli Sacra Di D. Cesare D`Engenio Caracciolo Napolitano. Ove oltre le vere origini e fundationi di tutte le Chiese | Monasterij | Spadali | & altri luoghi sacri della Città di Napoli e suoi Borghi. Si tratta di tutti li Corpi e Reliquie di Santi e Beati. per Ottavio Beltramo ad istanza di, Monleviero S, editors. Napoli; 1623.
Ventura L, Petrella E, Piciucchi S, Cilli E, Luiselli D, Feeney RNM, et al. Giant cell tumor of bone in an eighteenth-century Italian mummy. Virchows Arch. 2021 Dec;479(6):1255–61. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00428-021-03192-5
Traversari M, Serrangeli MC, Catalano G, Petrella E, Piciucchi S, Feletti F, et al. Multi-analytic study of a probable case of fibrous dysplasia (FD) from certosa monumental cemetery (Bologna, Italy). Int J Paleopathol. 2019 Jun 1; 25:1–8.
Traversari M, Figus C, Petrella E, Piciucchi S, Vazzana A, Cilli E, et al. Paleopathological analysis of a probable case of Jarcho-Levin syndrome from the 18th century Northern Italy. Medicina Historica. 2019;3(1):39–45. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpp.2019.03.003
Buikstra JE, Ubelaker DH. Standards for Data Collection from Human Skeletal Remains. Arkansas Archaeological Survey Research Series. 1994;
Meindl RS, Lovejoy CO. Ectocranial suture closure: A revised method for the determination of skeletal age at death based on the lateral‐anterior sutures. Am J Phys Anthropol. 1985 Sep;68(1):57–66. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.1330680106
Langemo DK, Brown G. Skin fails too: acute, chronic, and end-stage skin failure. Adv Skin Wound Care. 2006 May;19(4):206–11. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1097/00129334-200605000-00014
Brennan MR, Thomas L, Kline M. Prelude to Death or Practice Failure? Trombley-Brennan Terminal Tissue Injury Update. American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. 2019;36(11):1016–9. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1049909119838969
Schank JE. The Kennedy Terminal Ulcer – Alive and Well. Journal of the American College of Clinical Wound Specialists. 2016;8(1–3):54–5. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jccw.2018.02.002
Ventura L, Fornaciari G, Calabrese A, Arrizza L, Fornaciari A. Paleopathology of a 19th century mummy of a nobleman from Popoli, central Italy. Medicina Historica. 2020;4(1):29–34.
Gaeta R, Ventura L, Fornaciari G. The cutaneous cancer of ferdinando orsini, 5th duke of gravina. Vol. 153, JAMA Dermatology. 2017. p. 643. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1001/jamadermatol.2017.1847
Maigne JY, Doursounian L, Jacquot F. Classification of fractures of the coccyx from a series of 104 patients. European Spine Journal. 2020;29(10):2534–42. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00586-019-06188-7
Kennedy KL. The prevalence of pressure ulcers in an intermediate care facility. Decubitus. 1989 May;2(2):44–5.
Roca-Biosca A, Rubio-Rico L, De molina-Fernández MI, Martinez-Castillo JF, Pancorbo-Hidalgo PL, García-Fernández FP. Kennedy terminal ulcer and other skin wounds at the end of life: An integrative review. Vol. 30, Journal of Tissue Viability. 2021. p. 178–82. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtv.2021.02.006
Ayello EA, Levine JM, Langemo D, Kennedy-Evans K Lou, Brennan MR, Gary Sibbald R. Reexamining the Literature on Terminal Ulcers, SCALE, Skin Failure, and Unavoidable Pressure Injuries. Adv Skin Wound Care. 2019;32(3). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1097/01.ASW.0000553112.55505.5f
Copyright (c) 2024 the Author(s)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
PAGEPress has chosen to apply the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0) to all manuscripts to be published.
Downloads
Citations
