Ocular Syphilis: Experience over 11 Years at a German Ophthalmology Reference Centre

ABSTRACT

Background

In accordance with worldwide data, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) has reported a constant increase of syphilis cases in Germany over the past decade.

Methods

We analysed the data of all patients, referred to a Department of Ophthalmology in a tertiary referral centre in Düsseldorf, Germany between 2008 and 2019, who were tested for syphilis. The epidemiologic, demographic, clinical, diagnostic and therapeutic data were retrieved from the records and evaluated in a retrospective, descriptive, non-comparative study.

Results

Syphilis serology was positive in 32/1840 (1.7%) patients, and was evenly distributed over this period. 26 (81.3%) were male, 19 (59.4%) belonged to a risk group. Ocular syphilis was the primary diagnosis for 29 patients (90.6%). The most frequent manifestation was uveitis (n = 20, 62.5%). By the end of therapy, 19 patients (59.4%) had an improved visual acuity.

Conclusion

The incidence of ocular syphilis cases has remained stable over the last decade.

KEYWORDS:

• syphilis
• epidemiology
• ocular syphilis
• uveitis
• HIV
• Germany

Disclosure statement

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

Ethics approval

This study was conducted with the approval of the ethics commission of the medical faculty, Heinrich-Heine University, Duesseldorf

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

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