BONE LESIONS OF CONGENITAL SYPHILIS

Congenital bone syphilis is fairly frequent, and its lesions, if not the most common, are among the most characteristic in the body. However, while these peculiar types of bone syphilis are more or less standard in appearance, it is extremely difficult to make a diagnosis when confronted by the many protean manifestations which this essentially polymorphic disease presents. It is the purpose of this paper to discuss some of these fairly constant diagnostic features of congenital bone syphilis and to present a few roentgenograms showing such lesions.

That bone lesions in syphiltic infants are exceptionally common cannot be disputed. Holt¹ states that in the case of a syphilitic fetus, a stillborn child or one dying soon after birth, the changes in the bones are more uniformly present than any other lesions; and Hochsinger² has stated that in practically every infant dying of syphilis bone lesions are found. Findlay