Multifocal syphilitic chorioretinitis--a case report

The aim of the paper is to report a case of a 22-year-old male patient with chronic bilateral uveitis and retinitis secondary to syphilis. Until the diagnosis, the patient had been treated symptomatically with ceftriaxone which resulted in visual acuity improvement. The patient was referred to the Sexually Transmitted Disease Clinic for causal treatment after which he did not continue further ophthalmic monitoring. After a year he contacted the Department again due to vision deterioration and a relapse of retinitis and choroiditis was diagnosed. The patient was referred to the Sexually Transmitted Disease Clinic for causal treatment which he never received as he did not present there. Since the beginning of the 21st century the incidence of syphilis has significantly increased. Although it is an infectious disease with potentially permanently debilitating effect e.g. on vision, its treatment is not compulsory in Poland. Infectious etiology and primary syphilis should always be considered in patients with progressive retinitis, choroiditis and vitritis.