Operative Recognition of Syphilis of the Aorta

Aortic syphilis has not disappeared. Few patients with aortic syphilis are diagnosed pre-operatively or after histologic examination of the resected aortas. The gross features of the wall of the syphilitic aortic aneurysm, however, are unique allowing diagnosis of this entity on the operating table. Thirty patients aged 33 to 84 years (mean 66) (18 women) had a syphilitic aneurysm involving the tubular portion of ascending aorta resected at Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas from 2009 through 2017. That syphilis was the cause of the aneurysm was not appreciated either preoperatively or at operation. Syphilis produces characteristic changes in the aorta: it is thicker than normal due to fibrous thickening of the intima and adventitia, the intimal surface is 100% abnormal, and the sinus portion of the aorta is uninvolved. The process begins at or just distal to the sinotubular junction. Histologic findings are specific. A negative serologic test for syphilis does not rule out the presence of syphilis of the aorta. The key to identifying at operation syphilis of the aorta is to note that its entire intimal surface is abnormal, that one or more saccular aneurysms may arise from the fusiform aneurysm, that the aneurysmal wall isthicker than normal, and that the wall of the sinus portion of the aorta is spared. Identificationof the syphilitic cause appears to be important because antibiotic therapy is recommended to prevent or retard the development of neurological syphilis, particularly in the younger patients.