International Journal of STD & AIDS > Volume 19, Number 10 > Pp. 721-722

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Case reports

Syphilis causing hearing loss

S Y Chan MRCP ^* , M Medhi MRCP , A Ekbote MRCP , S Moses MRC Path , N Sibtain MRCP FRCR , T Andrews MD FRCP ^**, A F O'Connor FRCS  and R Kulasegaram FRCP ^*

^* Department of Genitourinary Medicine, St Thomas's Hospital; Department of Genitourinary Medicine; Department of Virology, King's College Hospital; Department of Radiology; ^** Department of Neurology; Department of ENT, St Thomas's Hospital, London, UK

Correspondence to: Dr S Y Chan, Department of Genitourinary Medicine, St Thomas's Hospital, London SE1 7EH, UK Email: sumyeeyorkies{at}yahoo.co.uk

An HIV-positive man with hepatitis B co-infection, naïve to highly active antiretroviral therapy, with a CD4 of 594 copies/mL and HIV-1 viral load of 140,070 copies, presented with right-sided facial weakness and hearing loss. He had been treated for secondary syphilis three months earlier when his rapid plasma reagin (RPR) result was 1:16, this had fallen to neat. At presentation, his RPR had risen to 1:16 again. A magnetic resonance imaging scan showed enhancement of the internal auditory canal and right cochlea. His cerebrospinal fluid examination was normal. He was treated with acyclovir and prednisolone before the syphilis serology was known. He was then treated for syphilis with doxycycline. He made an excellent recovery.

Key Words: syphilis • otosyphilis

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