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Updated: Sep 25, 2025

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Published on: May 5, 2022
Surgical repair of an inflammatory macular hole associated with ocular syphilis
Katherine M Niemeyer1, Xuejing Chen1
1Department of Ophthalmology, Boston University School of Medicine, 85 East Concord Street, 8th Floor, Boston, MA, 02118, USA.
Purpose:
To describe a case of an inflammatory macular hole associated with ocular syphilis and its successful surgical closure.
Observations:
A 55-year-old man presented with count fingers vision and was found to have unilateral ocular syphilis with panuveitis and a foveal subretinal lesion. The inflammation quickly resolved with treatment, but he developed a full-thickness macular hole on day 5. A pars plana vitrectomy with membrane peel and intraocular gas was performed three months later. The macular hole was successfully closed, and the patient's vision improved to 20/200 18 months after repair. Foveal outer retinal atrophy limited final vision improvement.
Conclusions And Importance:
Ocular syphilis can rarely be associated with inflammatory macular holes. Surgical intervention can offer successful anatomic results; however, final visual outcomes may be limited by retinal scarring or atrophy from the original inflammation.
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