Focus: wound care in palliative patients

Anaerobe: an organism that grows without air, or requires oxygen-free conditions to live. Most wound odors are due the metabolic processes of anaerobic bacteria, which colonize devitalized tissue.¹

Fungating wound: occurs when the epithelium is infiltrated by a local tumor or by the metastatic spread of a primary tumor that breaks through the skin surface.² The wound may either be ulcerative craters or proliferative raised, cauliflower-like nodules.

Kaposi Sarcoma: cancer that causes lesions (abnormal tissue) to grow in the skin; the mucous membranes lining the mouth, nose, and throat; lymph nodes; or other organs.³ Human herpesvirus-8 (HHV-8) is found in the lesions which are usually purple and are made of cancer cells, new blood vessels, red blood cells, and white blood cells.³

Kennedy terminal ulcers: described as pressure ulcers that present as pear-shaped purple areas of skin, often on the sacrum, seen 2–3 days before death.⁴