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Syphilitic perioptic neuritis mimicking papilloedema

Grace S H Low and Robert H Edis
Med J Aust 2009; 191 (4): . || doi: 10.5694/j.1326-5377.2009.tb02766.x
Published online: 17 August 2009

To the Editor: Following the letter by Kitson et al, about a patient with asymptomatic ocular syphilis,1 we describe another unusual presentation of syphilis, with perioptic neuritis that mimicked papilloedema.


  • Royal Perth Hospital, Perth, WA.


Correspondence: gracelow79@hotmail.com

Acknowledgements: 

Thanks to Robert Edis, Adel Ekladious, Barry Walters, Jenny McCloskey, Catherine Franconi, Mei-Ling Tay-Kearney and Sam Kain from the Departments of Internal Medicine, Neurology, Sexual Health and Ophthalmology, Royal Perth Hospital, for their joint contributions.

  • 1. Kitson MT, Yong MK, Hoy JF. Ocular syphilis: are we seeing all there is to see? Med J Aust 2008; 189: 411. <MJA full text>
  • 2. Miller NR, Walsh FB, Newman NJ, et al. Optic neuritis. In: Miller NR, Newman NJ, Biousse V, Kerrison JB, editors. Walsh and Hoyt’s clinical neuro-opthalmology. 6th ed. (Vol 1). Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams and Wilkins, 2005: 293-347.
  • 3. Amaratunge BC, Hall AJ. Ocular syphilis in Victoria: four new cases and a brief discussion of the current Victorian experience. Clin Experiment Ophthalmol 2008; 36: 192–194.
  • 4. Jin F, Prestage GP, Kippax SC, et al. Epidemic syphilis among homosexually active men in Sydney. Med J Aust 2005; 183: 179–183. <MJA full text>
  • 5. Wright MR, Giele CM, Dance PR, Thompson SC. Fulfilling prophecy? Sexually transmitted infections and HIV in Indigenous people in Western Australia. Med J Aust 2005; 183: 124-128. <MJA full text>

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