title: Syphilitic proctitis.
abstract: Syphilitic proctitis is a rare disease that usually presents as proctitis, ulcer, and neoplasm but lacks pathognomonic clinical symptoms. It is thus difficult to diagnose and may be treated inappropriately. We report a 31-year-old man who had a hard, ulcerated mass that occupied the rectal and sigmoid colon wall and mimicked a tumor. Fortunately, a biopsy of the mass demonstrated Treponema pallidum organisms consistent with syphilitic proctitis. The patient was successfully treated with intravenous benzyl penicillin, resulting in improvement in his proctitis.
authors.affiliation: Division of Digestive and Liver Disease (Yang, Mayorga) and the Department of Pathology (Peng), the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas; and the Division of Digestive and Liver Disease, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Siddiqui).
authors.forename: Juliana F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Division of Digestive and Liver Disease (Yang, Mayorga) and the Department of Pathology (Peng), the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas; and the Division of Digestive and Liver Disease, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Siddiqui).
authors.forename: Lan
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.affiliation: Division of Digestive and Liver Disease (Yang, Mayorga) and the Department of Pathology (Peng), the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas; and the Division of Digestive and Liver Disease, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Siddiqui).
authors.forename: Ali A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Siddiqui
authors.affiliation: Division of Digestive and Liver Disease (Yang, Mayorga) and the Department of Pathology (Peng), the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas; and the Division of Digestive and Liver Disease, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (Siddiqui).
authors.forename: Christian A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Mayorga