Syphilis-related Ocular Inflammation in HIV-positive and HIV-negative Patients

ABSTRACT

Purpose

To evaluate the clinical characteristics and visual outcomes of ocular syphilis in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive and negative patients.

Methods

We performed a retrospective chart review of all patients with newly diagnosed ocular syphilis between January 2015 and August 2021.

Results

68 eyes of 41 patients (22 eyes in 12 HIV-positive patients, 46 eyes in 29 HIV-negative patients) were included. The most common ophthalmic feature was posterior uveitis in HIV-positive and anterior uveitis in HIV-negative patients; 58.3% (7 out of 12 patients) of HIV-positive and 48.2% (14 out of 29 patients) of HIV-negative patients were diagnosed with neurosyphilis. There were no significant differences in laterality, presence of concurrent rash, rapid plasma reagin (RPR) titers, presenting, and final corrected visual acuity between both groups.

Conclusion

Nearly one-fifth of eyes may suffer from severe visual loss of ≤ 20/200. HIV co-infection may not result in visual outcomes in syphilis.

KEYWORDS:

• HIV
• ocular inflammation
• ocular syphilis
• scleritis
• uveitis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.