Syphilis of the liver

Abstract

1. That syphilis of the liver occurs in a small proportion of cases of syphilis and may develop at any time from the early secondary stage of the disease.

2. That there are various types of liver involvement giving different pathological pictures and demanding different lines of treatment.

3. That syphilis of the liver can give rise to symptoms suggesting almost every other condition of the liver and gall- bladder and

4. That the only definite diagnostic test in Hepatic Syphilis is the Therapeutic test but other aids to diagnosis are: a) The finding of a strongly pesitive Wassermann indicating that the patient is suffering fro syphilis. A negative Wassermann Reaction does not mean that the patient has not syphilis¡ b) The history of the patient having been infected with syphilis at some earlier date; c) The finding of a healed scar of the primary sore or in the earlier cases the primary sore still present, or the presence of a secondary rash; d) Evidence of syphilis of some other region of the body such as the central nervous system or cardio- vascular system.

5. That practically all cases are improved by being given the appropriate treatment indicated in the first part of the thesis, and that the early benign type is apparently cured.

6. That liver efficiency tests only indicate the amount of damage to the organ and do not help in differentiating between syphilis and other pathological conditions of the liver.

From the diversity of symptoms given and the variability of the signs elicited in syphilis of the liver, this condition should be excluded in all pathological processes in the liver.

As the liver is affected in such a definite number of cases, involvement of the liver should be looked for carefully in every patient suffering from syphilis. The finding of it early would, if properly treated save a lot of ill-health occurring in syphilitic patients in later years.