Tertiary syphilis: tubero-serpiginous and tubero-ulcerous syphilids

Challenges in the Diagnosis of Tertiary Syphilis: Case Report with Literature Review

“…Late symptomatic syphilis is a rare systemic disease that can affect the skin, the mucous membranes, the circulatory system, the nervous system and the skeletal system. The incidence of tertiary syphilis decreases significantly with the introduction of penicillin in its early stage, but new cases of this disease are still being reported [ 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 , 63 , 64 , 65 ,…”

“…In order to illustrate this issue, the PubMed database was searched for cases of tertiary syphilis in the last 10 years. 22 cases of late skin syphilis (including one in Poland) [ 14 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 47 ], 21 cases of cardiovascular system syphilis [ 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 , 63 , 64 , 65 , 66 , 67 , 68 , 69 , 70 , 71 , 72 ], five cases of systemic syphilis (the liver, the pancreas, the adrenal glands) [ 73 , 74 , 75 , 76 , 77 ], 11 cases of syphilis affecting bones [ 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 ,…”

“…Syphilis can be divided into primary and secondary stage early syphilis (within one year of infection), and late latent and symptomatic syphilis [ 10 ]. The number of cases of late symptomatic syphilis have dropped significantly since the implementation of penicillin to treat early syphilis [ 11 ], but occasional cases of tertiary syphilis are still noted [ 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 , 63 ,…”