2022 Volume 68 Issue 3 Pages 190-195
In 2021, we experienced a case of bilateral acute sensorineural hearing loss diagnosed as otosyphilis based on blood tests on admission. The hearing loss was successfully treated by the simultaneous administration of a tapering dose of corticosteroids and antipyretic therapy. A simple MRI scan (3D-FLAIR image) showed that the inner ear had a high signal before treatment, which normalized after treatment. Due to the widespread use of penicillin, the number of cases of syphilis in Japan has decreased dramatically since the end of World War II, and the disease is rarely encountered in daily clinical practice. However, the number of patients has increased in recent years, and it has become a social problem. The diagnosis is not easy due to the variety of symptoms and because multiple organs are involved. Furthermore, patients may hesitate to be interviewed because it is a sexually transmitted disease. Since otosyphilis is not uncommon, it should be included in the list of differential diagnoses in the daily clinical practice of otolaryngology. We herein report a case and review the relevant literature.
