Case Report

Otosyphilis: A rare cause of acute bilateral sensorineural hearing loss in a HIV-negative patient

Johan Sothmann, Shaun Adam, Gideon van Tonder, Razaan Davis, Leon Janse van Rensburg
South African Journal of Radiology | Vol 26, No 1 | a2351 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.4102/sajr.v26i1.2351 | © 2022 Johan Sothmann, Shaun Adam, Gideon van Tonder, Razaan Davis, Leon Janse van Rensburg | This work is licensed under CC Attribution 4.0
Submitted: 24 November 2021 | Published: 29 March 2022

About the author(s)

Johan Sothmann, Department of Medical Imaging and Clinical Oncology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa
Shaun Adam, Division of Otorhinolaryngology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa
Gideon van Tonder, Division of Otorhinolaryngology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa
Razaan Davis, Department of Medical Imaging and Clinical Oncology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa
Leon Janse van Rensburg, Department of Medical Imaging and Clinical Oncology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa; and, Department of Radiology and Diagnostics, Faculty of Dentistry, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa

Abstract

Bilateral acute hearing loss is rare, and the aetiology is poorly defined. Less common treatable pathologies such as otosyphilis must be part of the differential diagnosis and should be actively excluded. We present a case of a 23-year-old woman who developed acute bilateral hearing loss due to otosyphilis, confirmed on audiometry and laboratory tests. In this article, the CT, MRI and clinical findings are presented and discussed.


Keywords

otosyphilis; sensorineural; computed tomography; magnetic resonance imaging; audiology; human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)

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