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Moritz Kaposi (Hungarian:Kaposi Mór,pronounced[ˈkɒpoʃiˈmoːr]; 23 October 1837 – 6 March 1902) was aphysician anddermatologist from theAustro-Hungarian Empire who discovered the skin tumor that received his name (Kaposi's sarcoma).
Born inKaposvár,Hungary,Austrian Empire, to aJewish family, originally his surname was Kohn; but, with his conversion to theCatholic faith, he changed it to Kaposi in 1871, in reference to his town of birth. One purported reason behind this is that he wanted to marry a daughter of then-dermatology chair,Ferdinand Ritter von Hebra, and advance in society, which he could not have done being of Jewish faith. This motivation seems unlikely, however, because he married Martha Hebra and converted to Catholicism several years prior to changing his name, by which time he was already well established in the Vienna University faculty and a close associate of her father, Ferdinand. A more plausible explanation is based on his own comments to colleagues that he changed his name to avoid confusion with five other similarly named physicians on the Vienna faculty. Rumors about the sincerity of both his marriage and his concerns about his Jewish ancestry may have arisen through professional jealousy;William Dubreuilh (1857–1935), first professor and chairman of dermatology in Bordeaux, noted, "On disait de Kaposi qu'il avait pris la fille de Hebra, sa maison, sa chaire et sa clientèle, laissant le reste à son beau-frère Hans Hebra." ("It was said of Kaposi that he had taken Hebra's daughter, his home, his chair and his clientele, leaving the rest to his brother-in-law, Hans Hebra.")[This quote needs a citation]
In 1855, Kaposi began to studymedicine at theUniversity of Vienna and attained adoctorate in 1861. In his dissertation, titledDermatologie und Syphilis (1866) he made an important contribution to the field. Kaposi was appointed as professor at the University of Vienna in 1875, and in 1881 he became a member of the board of theVienna General Hospital and director of its clinic ofskin diseases.
Together with his mentor, Ferdinand Ritter von Hebra, he authored the bookLehrbuch der Hautkrankheiten (Textbook of Skin Diseases) in 1878. Kaposi's main work, however, wasPathologie und Therapie der Hautkrankheiten in Vorlesungen für praktische Ärzte und Studierende (Pathology and Therapy of the Skin Diseases in Lectures for Practical Physicians and Students), published in 1880, which became one of the most significant books in the history ofdermatology, being translated to several languages. He is credited with the description ofxeroderma pigmentosum, a rare genetic disorder now known to be caused by defects innucleotide excision repair ("Ueber Xeroderma pigmentosum. Medizinische Jahrbücher, Wien, 1882: 619–633"). Among other diseases, Kaposi was the first to studylichen scrofulosorum andlupus erythematosus. In all, he published over 150 books and papers. He is widely credited with advancing the use ofpathologic examination in the diagnosis of dermatologic diseases.
He died on 6 March 1902 inVienna,Austria-Hungary.
His name entered into thehistory of medicine in 1872, when he described for the first timeKaposi's sarcoma, acancer of theskin, which he had discovered in five elderly male patients and which he initially named "idiopathic multiple pigmented sarcoma". More than a century later, the appearance of this disease in young gay men inNew York City,San Francisco and other coastal cities in theUnited States was one of the first indications that a new disease, now calledAIDS, had appeared. Kaposi's sarcoma is a tumor that is caused by a virus,Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus or KSHV, discovered in 1993. Kaposi's sarcoma is now the most commonly reported cancer in parts of sub-Saharan Africa.
According to J. D. Oriel, "in his lifetime, Moritz Kaposi was acknowledged as one of the great masters of theVienna School of Dermatology, a superb clinician and renowned teacher".[1] While his mentor, Ferdinand von Hebra, is considered the "father of German dermatology",[2] Kaposi was one of the first to establish dermatology on its anatomicalpathology scientific basis. He became the chairman of theVienna School of Dermatology, after Hebra's death in 1880.
