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A Rare Presentation of Undiagnosed Systemic Syphilis: A Case Report and Review of Literature

Within the specialties of infectious diseases and dermatology, few rashes involve the palms and soles. The syphilitic rash has a pathognomonic association with these body surfaces and signals physicians to investigate this disease. However, the distinct presentations and symptoms associated with syp...

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Autores principales: Ruiz de Villa, Ariel, Haider, Asad A, Frimer, Leora, Lleshi, Amina, Bazikian, Yvette
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Cureus 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9464350/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36110468
http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.27911
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author Ruiz de Villa, Ariel
Haider, Asad A
Frimer, Leora
Lleshi, Amina
Bazikian, Yvette
author_facet Ruiz de Villa, Ariel
Haider, Asad A
Frimer, Leora
Lleshi, Amina
Bazikian, Yvette
author_sort Ruiz de Villa, Ariel
collection PubMed
description Within the specialties of infectious diseases and dermatology, few rashes involve the palms and soles. The syphilitic rash has a pathognomonic association with these body surfaces and signals physicians to investigate this disease. However, the distinct presentations and symptoms associated with syphilis and the various stages of the disease make it diagnostically challenging. We herein report a rather intricate and unusual case of a patient who presented with a new-onset headache and blurred vision and a two-month history of diffuse pruritic maculopapular rash sparing the palms and soles. Several physicians had not established a diagnosis in the outpatient setting. Inpatient workup eventually revealed that the patient was suffering from secondary syphilis with neurological and ocular involvement. Management included a prolonged course of intravenous penicillin G leading to a complete recovery. We share images of the skin findings and the details of the intricate workup and hospital course, as well as a review of the literature.
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spelling pubmed-94643502022-09-14 A Rare Presentation of Undiagnosed Systemic Syphilis: A Case Report and Review of Literature Ruiz de Villa, Ariel Haider, Asad A Frimer, Leora Lleshi, Amina Bazikian, Yvette Cureus Internal Medicine Within the specialties of infectious diseases and dermatology, few rashes involve the palms and soles. The syphilitic rash has a pathognomonic association with these body surfaces and signals physicians to investigate this disease. However, the distinct presentations and symptoms associated with syphilis and the various stages of the disease make it diagnostically challenging. We herein report a rather intricate and unusual case of a patient who presented with a new-onset headache and blurred vision and a two-month history of diffuse pruritic maculopapular rash sparing the palms and soles. Several physicians had not established a diagnosis in the outpatient setting. Inpatient workup eventually revealed that the patient was suffering from secondary syphilis with neurological and ocular involvement. Management included a prolonged course of intravenous penicillin G leading to a complete recovery. We share images of the skin findings and the details of the intricate workup and hospital course, as well as a review of the literature. Cureus 2022-08-12 /pmc/articles/PMC9464350/ /pubmed/36110468 http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.27911 Text en Copyright © 2022, Ruiz de Villa et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Internal Medicine
Ruiz de Villa, Ariel
Haider, Asad A
Frimer, Leora
Lleshi, Amina
Bazikian, Yvette
A Rare Presentation of Undiagnosed Systemic Syphilis: A Case Report and Review of Literature
title A Rare Presentation of Undiagnosed Systemic Syphilis: A Case Report and Review of Literature
title_full A Rare Presentation of Undiagnosed Systemic Syphilis: A Case Report and Review of Literature
title_fullStr A Rare Presentation of Undiagnosed Systemic Syphilis: A Case Report and Review of Literature
title_full_unstemmed A Rare Presentation of Undiagnosed Systemic Syphilis: A Case Report and Review of Literature
title_short A Rare Presentation of Undiagnosed Systemic Syphilis: A Case Report and Review of Literature
title_sort rare presentation of undiagnosed systemic syphilis: a case report and review of literature
topic Internal Medicine
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9464350/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36110468
http://dx.doi.org/10.7759/cureus.27911
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