Ocular Syphilis: The Resurgence of an Old Disease Experience of a Tertiary Centre in Portugal.

Abstract

Purpose: To estimate the number of ocular syphilis (OS) cases diagnosed in a tertiary care centre in Portugal, correlate with increasing syphilis diagnoses and characterize the OS population.

Materials and methods: Retrospective, observational, single-center study that included patients diagnosed with OS between 2015 and 2023 at the local health unit of Coimbra. Demographic data were collected, and a complete ophthalmological examination was performed with multimodal imaging acquisition. Data on syphilis reports from the National System of Epidemiologic Surveillance were correlated with OS data.

Results: Fifty-four patients with OS were observed; mean age was 54.17 ± 14.46 years, 38 (70.37%) were male and 18 (47.37%) men who have sex with men. The proportion of OS in syphilis patients per year ranged from 0% to 10.34%. One-quarter were co-infected with HIV. Forty-nine patients (91.84%) complained of decreased visual acuity on presentation. Twenty-two (40.74%) had systemic findings (mostly skin rash). Two-thirds had bilateral disease and half presented with anterior segment involvement. Eighty-five percent had posterior segment involvement, mostly placoid chorioretinitis. Forty-one percent had optic nerve involvement. All patients were admitted and underwent 2-week treatment with intravenous penicillin. Visual acuity improved from logMAR 0.70 to logMAR 0.26 (p < 0.001).

Conclusions: Ocular syphilis is a heterogeneous disease with a wide range of presentations. The incidence is on the rise and therefore OS must be considered in every patient with anterior and posterior uveitis, panuveitis and optic neuritis, with or without systemic manifestations.