Introduction

Neuropathic osteoarthropathies are skeletal changes that occur in weight bearing joints secondary to loss of sensation. J.-M. Charcot in 18681, whose work described the progress of joint degeneration and connected them with spinal cord lesions. The eponymous “Charcot joint” is associated with a number of neurological conditions that may disrupt sensory input such as neurosyphilis, diabetes mellitus, leprosy, syringomyelia, and chronic alcoholism1. However, there is little information in the paleopathological literature describing Charcot knee in dry-bone and for establishing possible differential diagnoses in paleopathological investigations. Here, we present a case study of HTH 1944, an adult male (76-79 years) with an identified Charcot knee joint from the Hamann-Todd Osteological Collection.

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References

  1. Charcot, J. M. (1868). Sur quelques anthropathies qui paraissent dependre d’une lesion du cervean ou de la moelle epindere. Arch Physiol Norm Pathol. 1, 161-178.
  2. Jones, E. A., Manaster, B. J., May, D. A., & Disler, D. G. (2000). Neuropathic osteoarthropathy: diagnostic dilemmas and differential diagnosis. Radiographics, 20(suppl_1), S279-S293.
  3. Lu, V., Zhang, J., Thahir, A., Zhou, A., & Krkovic, M. (2021). Charcot knee—presentation, diagnosis, management—a scoping review. Clinical Rheumatology, 40(11), 4445-4456.
  4. Rees, H., Lyons, M., Belich, P., & Brown, N. (2021). Neuropathic (Charcot) arthropathy of the knee. JAAOS-Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, 29(23), e1159-e1166.
  5. Burt, N. M., Semple, D., Waterhouse, K., & Lovell, N. C. (2013). Identification and interpretation of joint disease in paleopathology and forensic anthropology. Charles C Thomas Publisher.
  6. Aufderheide, A. C., Rodríguez-Martín, C., & Langsjoen, O. (1998). The Cambridge encyclopedia of human paleopathology (Vol. 478). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  7. Rosenbaum, A. J., & DiPreta, J. A. (2015). Classifications in brief: Eichenholtz classification of Charcot arthropathy. Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research, 473(1), 1168-1171.
  8. Chantelau, E. A., & Grützner, G. (2014). Is the Eichenholtz classification still valid for the diabetic Charcot foot?. Swiss Medical Weekly, 144(1718), w13948-w13948.