Ophthalmologic Assesment of Patients with Syphilitic Optic Neuropathy

ABSTRACT

Purpose

To assess the different clinical findings and symptoms of patients with optic neuritis (ON) and uveitis, who were diagnosed with syphilis.

Methods

The medical records of patients, who had ocular involvement of syphilis, were retrospectively reviewed. Thirteen patients with syphilitic optic neuropathy (SON) were enrolled and underwent complete ophthalmological examinations and auxiliary laboratory testing.

Results

Nine patients (69.2%) had comorbidities in addition to syphilis. One patient (with two eyes) presented with retrobulbar neuritis, and 12 patients (with 17 eyes) presented with anterior optic neuritis. Three patients (23.1%) had no uveitis, and 10 patients (76.9%) had uveitis in cases with SON. Four eyes (16.6%) had subretinal fluid, and three eyes (12.5%) had cystoid macular edema.

Conclusions

Visual function can be preserved with early diagnosis and proper treatment. Accordingly, newly diagnosed patients with ON and uveitis should undergo syphilitic investigation in routine practice.

KEYWORDS:

• Fundus fluorescein angiography
• Optic coherence tomography
• optic neuropathy
• syphilis
• uveitis

Disclosure statement

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

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 that there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.