Neurosyphilis : $b Modern systematic diagnosis and treatment presented in one hundred and thirty-seven case historiesSouthard, Elmer Ernest
Science
Neurosyphilis : $b Modern systematic diagnosis and treatment presented in one hundred and thirty-seven case histories
Southard, Elmer Ernest
Neurosyphilis
=Case 57.= We borrow the main features of a remarkable case examined at
the Danvers State Hospital clinically by Dr. H. W. Mitchell and reported
elaborately by Dr. A. M. Barrett. This case, whom we shall call John
Summers, acquired syphilis at about the end of the third week in May,
1902, and consulted a physician on June 12, at which time a
characteristic initial lesion of syphilis was plain. Summers was
excessively alcoholic at times and was not seen by a physician again
until July 2, just after an alcoholic debauch. At this time there was
ulceration of the primary lesion, and a papillary eruption had developed
over the arms, chest, abdomen, and legs. Mercurial treatment and mixed
treatment were given. Arthritis occurred but disappeared with increased
dosage.
About six months after infection, the patient developed severe
headaches, hardly controllable by treatment. Amnesia and a certain
stupidity, with neglect of personal habits, and even of eating,
developed, whereupon Summers was admitted to the Danvers Hospital,
December 11, 1902. He weighed 124 pounds, was extremely feeble, with
dull and expressionless face, coarse purposeless movements of arms; left
pupil larger than right; right external strabismus and ocular ptosis;
increased knee-jerks, crossed adductor reflex, coarse tremors of arms
and hands; and extreme clouding of consciousness. It was doubtful
whether the pupils were stiff to light or not.
The patient died on the ninth day, December 18, in a state of coma.
After admission, his stupor had become more marked; there had been
incontinence of urine and fæces, and the patient could be aroused only
by loud tones. Difficulty in swallowing had developed; the right-sided
ptosis had become more marked, and muscular twitchings had developed on
the right side. When the left leg was pinched, there was twitching of
the left leg and arm. There was slight spasticity of the right arm and
leg. An examination upon the day of death definitely showed a lack of
reaction of the pupils to light.
[Illustration:
1. Exudate in pia mater—mononucleosis.
]
[Illustration:
2. Superficial (subpial) cellular reaction of neuroglia tissue
(expanded cell bodies).
]
[Illustration:
3. Cellular gliosis of deeper layers of cortex. Apparent increase in
capillary supply, possibly relative to loss of neural elements.
]
Case 57. Neurosyphilis (“disseminated syphilitic encephalitis” of A. M.
Barrett), fatal seven months from initial infection. (Photographs by A.
M. Barrett.)
Dr. Barrett was able to find in the literature a case of Bechterew which
histologically resembled his own case, but though in the instance
reported by Bechterew the first symptoms developed within the year
following infection, death did not occur until two years later.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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