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Unusual presentation of more common disease/injury
CASE REPORT
Rectal bleeding caused by a syphilitic inflammatory mass
  1. Joao Serigado1,
  2. Eugene Lewis2 and
  3. Grace Kim2
  1. 1 Medicine, University of Miami School of Medicine, Miami, Florida, USA
  2. 2 St. Vincent’s Medical Center, Bridgeport, Connecticut, USA
  1. Correspondence to Dr Joao Serigado, jxs1678{at}med.miami.edu

Abstract

A 47-year-old man presented with fatigue, decrease appetite, abdominal pain and rectal bleeding. His colonoscopy revealed a single, firm, raised, centrally ulcerated mass at the anorectal junction. During this same admission, he was diagnosed with HIV and syphilis, found to have multiple hepatic lesions and positive cerebrospinal fluidvenereal disease research laboratory test (VDRL). Biopsies from both the hepatic lesions and rectal ulcer showed spirochaetes by immunostaining. The initial presentation was felt to be secondary to a rectal inflammatory mass caused by syphilis.

  • ulcer
  • infection (gastroenterology)
  • HIV/AIDS
  • syphilis

https://doi.org/10.1136/bcr-2018-226595

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors JS and GK evaluated and diagnosed the patient. EL evaluated pathology specimens and provided images. JS performed literature review, reviewed the case and wrote the manuscript.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent Obtained.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.