Diagnosis of mummies

Today if you have a hernia, the organs are in the wrong position, it can be easily solved by surgery. But in the seventeenth century, patients were very painful and easy to die. Recent Korean mummy research shows that.

Photo: Kim et al

Using CT scans and autopsies on a Korean mummy revealed that this was a high-ranking official who lived more than 300 years ago. The results showed that the man's liver and stomach had released a hole in the abdominal wall and diaphragm, experts did not believe he died of this condition.

According to a report published by LiveSciene magazine, this noble man in middle age, has a hernia in his chest . The mummy was discovered in 2013, buried in the royal grave of the Chosun dynasty, located in Andong, South Korea. Checking the mummy showed that at the time of his death, he was about 45 years old. This man is 1.60m tall and is married because of the way his bun shows it in Korean custom.

Experts have also carefully reviewed evidence of herniation and described in PLoS ONE magazine. They found that he had to live with Bochdalek , a congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) . At that time, medicine was not developed enough to diagnose and treat. Men often suffer from symptoms of chest pain, nausea and shortness of breath.

CDH is a birth defect caused by a hole in the diaphragm. This means that the internal organs in the abdomen may be under pressure to push back through the hole into the chest cavity and are easy to kill if the lungs and heart are pinched. Experts used CT scans and autopsies to confirm suspicion of CDH for mummies, part of the stomach, liver and intestines pushed upwards.

The Daily Mail said the leader of the team, Yi-Suk Kim from Ewha University in Seoul, South Korea, did not think the man died directly because of his condition.