Purpose: To describe the clinical characteristics and visual prognosis of ocular involvement in syphilis.Design: A retrospective cohort study.Methods: We studied the charts of 24 patients who visited our Ophthalmological Centre in Rome, Italy. All patients with serological evidence of syphilitic infection were included.Results: Ocular involvement was the first manifestation of syphilitic disease in 96% and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) seropositivity was found in 29% of the cases. The most frequent ocular manifestation was posterior uveitis. Vitreous involvement was frequent. Patients with papillitis at onset showed better visual outcome with antisyphilitic treatment. Posterior uveitis at onset and HIV seropositivity were negative prognostic factors for visual outcome. HIV-positive patients showed more severe and frequent bilateral course of ocular involvement in syphilis.Conclusions: The ophthalmologist should suspect syphilis in patien ts with uveitis or optic neuropathy associated with high-risk sexual behaviour and/or HIV, or in patients with posterior placoid chorioretinitis, necrotising retinitis, or interstitial keratitis.

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梅毒眼的临床特征：在意大利转诊中心的回顾性临床研究。

目的：描述梅毒眼球受累的临床特征和视觉预后。设计：一项回顾性队列研究方法：我们研究了访问意大利罗马眼科中心的24位患者的病历。结果：眼部受累是梅毒疾病的首发表现，占96％，人类免疫缺陷病毒（HIV）血清反应阳性。最常见的眼部表现是后葡萄膜炎。玻璃体受累很频繁。服用抗梅毒剂治疗的乳头炎患者在视觉上有更好的预后。发生后葡萄膜炎和HIV血清阳性是视觉预后的阴性预后因素。