Journal of Clinical and Investigative Dermatology

Case Report

Syphilitic Alopecia: Report of a Challenging Case and Review of the Literature

Golbert S*, Beguerie JR and Busso C

Department of dermatology, Hospital Universitario Austral, Argentina
*Address for Correspondence: Golbert S, Department of dermatology, Hospital Universitario Austral, Buenos Aires, Argentina Av. Peron 1500, Derqui (1629) Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, Email: sgolbert@cas.austral.edu.ar
Submission: 23 April 2020; Accepted: 29 May 2020; Published: 29 August, 2020
Copyright: © 2020 Mattos Simoes M, et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Syphilitic alopecia (SA) is a rare manifestation of syphilis, which may be the only manifestation of the disease.
Two clinical forms are described; a symptomatic alopecia and an essential alopecia.
This last clinical form is the most frequently observed, presenting as a “motheaten” or “patch-form” appearance, in a more diffused hair loss pattern. The term neurosyphilis refers to the infection of the Central Nervous System (CNS) by Treponema Pallidum (T. pallidum) and can occur at any time during the course of the disease.
We present the case of a 61-year-old man who was diagnosed with early neurosyphilis presenting with syphilitic alopecia, and a review of the current literature. Although there are numerous reports of individual cases of both syphilitic alopecia and neurosyphilis, to our knowledge there are only three reports that describe their simultaneous presentation. We emphasize the importance of recognizing this presentation of syphilis in clinical practice, in order to carry out a timely treatment of the patient and their contacts.