A Case of Otosyphilis with Bilateral Progressive Hearing Impairment

The incidence of syphilis has decreased remarkably after the appearance of penicillin.On the other hand sometimes we still see syphilis cases that were infected via sexual behavior. Very few of them manifest hearing impairment and vertigo like Meniere’s disease. We report herein on the case of an otosyphilis patient.A 29-year-old man was referred to our department in order to evaluate bilateral progressive hearing impairment. Hearing loss in his right ear and left ear occurred suddenly 2 weeks previously and 1 week previously, respectively. On pure tone audiometry the patient showed mild and sensorineural hearing loss in the left and right ear, respectively. No rash was seen anywhere on his body. The serological and spinal fluid examinations were syphilis positive and the patient was diagnosed as having neurosyphilis. He was prescribed a 9-day course of betamethasone disodium phosphate and 14-day course of doxycycline. The hearing impairments in both of his ear improved partially. This case suggests that we must think of otosyphilis in patients with progressive bilateral hearing impairment.