Walsh & Hoyt: Syphilis

Optic neuritis from syphilis is not rare, but it is particularly common in patients also infectedwith HIV (see Chapters 56 and58). The optic neuritis of syphilis can be unilateral or bilateral andanterior or retrobulbar. When the condition is anterior, there is usually some cellular reaction in the vitreous, which serves to distinguish it (andother systemic inflammatory diseases that cause anterior optic neuritis) from demyelinating optic neuritis, in which the vitreous usually is clear (discussed previously).