SECONDARY SYPHILITIC UVEITIS

A patient with secondary syphilis had positive serum and CSF findings. Fluorescent-antibody darkfield testing demonstrated spirochetes (Treponema pallidum) in the aqueous. There were clinical signs of secondary syphilis, including palmar skin lesions and frontal balding, and bilateral nasal altitudinal visual field loss. The discrete, waxy, yellow-white retinal lesions became increasingly pigmented and later migrated anteriorly into the vitreous chamber. The patient was treated with large amounts of penicillin (total dosage, 440 million U) and probenecid. Visual acuity improved to right eye: 6/9 (20/30) and left eye: 6/12 (20/40) and the inflammatory reaction disappeared. A second aqueous tap 8 wk after therapy ended showed no spirochetes by fluorescent-antibody testing.