All issues > Volume 22(8); 1979

Original Article

J Korean Pediatr Soc. 1979;22(8):702-708. Published online August 15, 1979.

The Clinical Observation of Congenital Syphilis.

Hyeon Soo Park, Soo Jee Moon, Soo Yong Lee, Keun Soo Lee

¹Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, Hanyang University, Seoul, Korea.

Abstract

We made a clinical obserration of 84 cases of congenital syphilis at the pediatric department of Hanyang University Hospital in Seoul, Korea during the preiod from July, 1972 to June, 1978. The results were as following: 1. The incidence of congenital syphilis in the newborn infants delivered at the nursery was 0.47% among fullterm babies (28cases/6,056 born alive) and 2,31% among premature babies(8 cases/346 born alive) during the above mentioned period. 2. The incidence of congenital syphilis was 0.42% among all patients of pediatric ward(37cases/8,711) and 0.02% among all out patients of pediatric department (11cases/52,832)during the same above mentioned period. 3. Male to female sex ratio was about 2.2:1. 4. In the newborn nursery, 33.3%(20 of total 36 Pts) were under 2,500gm of birth weight and 20.5%(16 of total 36Pts) were under 37 wks of gestational periods. 5. 73%(35 of total 48Pts)of congenital syphilis in th OPD and ward of pediatric department had the onset of the first clinical feature within one month after birth. 6. The principal clinical features of congenital syphilis observed from the O.P.D. and ward of pediatric dept. were hepatosplenomegaly 62%(52 cases), skin manifestations 60.7%(51 cases), jaundice 31%(26 cases) and nasal stuffness and /or rhinitis 28.6%(24 cases) inorder. 7. In the examination of peripheral blood, anemia was shown in 70%, leukocytosis in 45% and leukemoid reactions in 10% of them. 8. Syphilitic bone changes in the bone X-ray films were detected in 35.7% of all 28 observed cases. 9. The complications or combined diseases were pneumonia (10 cases), sepsis (9 cases), tetanus (2 cases), meningitis (1 case), respiratory distress syndrome( 1 case) and congenital heart anomaly(1 case). 10. The mortality rate was 12% (10 cases/84)

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