Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Case Reports
. 2016 Jul;29(3):327-8.
doi: 10.1080/08998280.2016.11929457.

Syphilitic proctitis

Juliana F Yang  1 , Lan Peng  1 , Ali A Siddiqui  1 , Christian A Mayorga  1
Affiliations
Case Reports

Syphilitic proctitis

Juliana F Yang et al. Proc (Bayl Univ Med Cent). 2016 Jul.

Abstract

Syphilitic proctitis is a rare disease that usually presents as proctitis, ulcer, and neoplasm but lacks pathognomonic clinical symptoms. It is thus difficult to diagnose and may be treated inappropriately. We report a 31-year-old man who had a hard, ulcerated mass that occupied the rectal and sigmoid colon wall and mimicked a tumor. Fortunately, a biopsy of the mass demonstrated Treponema pallidum organisms consistent with syphilitic proctitis. The patient was successfully treated with intravenous benzyl penicillin, resulting in improvement in his proctitis.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
A fungating rectal mass protruding from the anal verge.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Rectal mass biopsy showing (a) polypoid granulation tissue with prominent plasma cells and (b) abundant T. pallidum organisms as highlighted by immunohistochemical study.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
The fungating rectal mass resolved endoscopically after treatment with benzathine penicillin G.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Lamb CA. Lamb EI. Mansfield JC. Sankar KN. Sexually transmitted ­infections manifesting as proctitis. Frontline Gastroenterol. 2013;4(1):32–40. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ghanem KG. Management of adult syphilis: key questions to inform the 2015 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sexually transmitted diseases treatment guidelines. Clin Infect Dis. 2015;61(Suppl 8):S818–S836. - PubMed
    1. Gallegos M. Bradly D. Jakate S. Keshavarzian A. Lymphogranuloma venereum proctosigmoiditis is a mimicker of inflammatory bowel disease. World J Gastroenterol. 2012;18(25):3317–3321. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources