BACILLARY DYSENTERY AS THE CAUSE OF REITER'S SYNDROME

Abstract

In December 1916 Reiter¹in Germany and Fiessinger and Leroy²in France independently described the symptom triad of arthritis, conjunctivitis and urethritis. The former ascribed the etiology to a spirochete, the latter to the dysentery bacillus. Perpetuated under the name of Reiter's disease, numerous cases have been described in many articles in the European literature.³There are six articles⁴in the American literature, none of which gives serious consideration to dysentery as a cause. <h3>MATERIAL</h3> The study of 176 cases of bacillary dysentery observed in 1943 in Algeria revealed 14 cases of postdysenteric arthritis.⁵Clinical and laboratory summaries of these cases are presented in the accompanying table. The group includes 1 woman (case 14), 1 Negro man (case 5) and 12 white men. The average age was 27 years. Of these 14 patients, there were only 4 who had arthritis alone (cases 11, 12, 13