Purulent Rectal Discharge Associated With a Nontreponemal Spirochete
- Lawrence R. Kaplan, MD;
- Akio Takeuchi, MD
Abstract
A nontreponemal spirochete was isolated from the rectum of a homosexual man with a chronic purulent discharge. Known infectious causes of the disease were excluded. Although the pathogenicity of the organism was not proved, the patient's symptoms rapidly resolved following penicillin G benzathine therapy. When culture of a nonhemorrhagic, purulent rectal discharge fails to verify Neisseria gonorrhoeae, health care personnel are encouraged to carefully examine a Gram's-stained smear of the discharge for spiral-shaped organisms.
(JAMA 241:52-53, 1979)
Footnotes
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Reprint requests to Division of Gastroenterology, Box 36 Mayo, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455 (Dr Kaplan).
