Gonorrhea Of the Throat, Gonorrhea Of the Eyes And Gonorrhea Of the Oral Cavity

2024 Author: Josephine Shorter | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 21:43

Gonorrhea of the throat, gonorrhea of the eyes and gonorrhea of the oral cavity

Definition of ambition

Gonorrhea is a specific infectious disease that is primarily sexually transmitted. The causative agent of the infection is the gram-negative bacteria Neisseria gonorrhoeae - gonococci. They usually enter the human body through the genitourinary system, but there are other transmission options. Gonococci can affect the mucous membranes of the throat, eyes, oral cavity, causing inflammatory pathogenic processes in these organs.

Content:

• Throat gonorrhea
• Oral gonorrhea
• Eye gonorrhea

Throat gonorrhea

Throat gonorrhea (oropharyngeal gonorrhea) occurs in women 2 times more often than in men, due to the frequency of orogenital contacts. For the most part (in 70-80% of cases), oropharyngeal gonorrhea is asymptomatic (hidden), in some cases the disease is similar to angina. Patients complain of sore throat, difficulty swallowing, hoarseness, their tonsils and lymph nodes are enlarged.

The similarity of oropharyngeal gonorrhea with angina presents some difficulties for doctors when making a diagnosis. Like tonsillitis, gonorrhea of the throat causes fever, chills, headaches, and a purulent plaque forms on the tonsils. The first symptoms of the disease can appear within a few hours after the pathogen enters the throat mucosa. This happens because the mucous membrane of this organ is practically unable to resist the gonococcal infection.

In this regard, acute gonorrhea of the throat quickly turns into a chronic form, which is a particular danger to human health, since inflammation can spread to the lining of the brain. If a gonococcal infection spreads to the brain, the outcome is almost always fatal.

Oral gonorrhea

Oral gonorrhea is detected mainly in persons who prefer oral sex, the course of the disease is often asymptomatic. In rare cases, there is a sore throat and fever. With orogenital infection, gonococcal stomatitis and pharyngitis can develop:

• Gonococcal stomatitis is manifested by edema and hyperemia of the mucous membrane, the release of a viscous-purulent secretion. If untreated, the mucous membrane of the cheeks, tongue and gums becomes covered with ulcers and erosions. The ulcerations are small in size, they are not particularly disturbing, yellow-gray mucus is secreted from them, in which gonococci are found.
• Gonococcal pharyngitis most often proceeds without any symptoms, sometimes patients complain of sore throat, profuse salivation, difficulty swallowing. A purulent-mucous plaque forms on the reddened pharynx and tonsils, the palatine tongue and palatine arches swell.

When the oral cavity is infected with gonorrhea in a household way, the symptoms of the disease are also similar to stomatitis - similar purulent inflammation occurs in the mouth. Only 3 days is enough for the gonococci to completely affect the laryngeal mucosa and palatine tonsils. The patient's body temperature rises, headaches and chills appear. The tonsils are covered with a purulent bloom.

Fortunately, there are several very effective ways to prevent gonorrhea - a constant sexual partner and the use of protective intimate means during intercourse. Although the methods are conservative, they are very effective and time-tested.

Eye gonorrhea

Gonorrhea of the eye (blenorrhea) usually manifests itself in the form of conjunctivitis, the incubation period after infection lasts from several hours to 2-3 weeks. Gonococci can enter the child's eyes when passing through the birth canal of the mother, and then the disease is called gonorrheal conjunctivitis of newborns or gonoblennorrhea. Adults become infected with gonorrhea of the eyes most often through the household route. Gonoblennorrhea of newborns appears 2 or 3 days after the birth of the baby. If the first symptoms of the disease are observed after 5-6 days, then this indicates that the causative agent of the disease was introduced from the outside.

There are 4 stages of the course of gonorrhea:

1. The stage of infiltration - it is characterized by the appearance of hyperemia and mucous discharge from the conjunctival cavity, edema of the eyelids, bleeding. The duration of this stage is 3-5 days.
2. The stage of suppuration - puffiness and hyperemia of the eyelids decrease, abundant purulent discharge of yellow color is observed. The conjunctiva of the eyeball continues to be edematous. The duration of the stage in time is 1-2 weeks.
3. The stage of proliferation - the amount of separated pus decreases, it becomes greenish in color. Puffiness and hyperemia of the conjunctiva are less pronounced, but as a result of the proliferation of the papillae, its surface becomes rough.
4. Stage of reverse development - signs of swelling and hyperemia of the conjunctiva disappear, the proliferation of papillae passes by the end of the second month.

However, a common complication of neonatal gonorrhea is corneal lesion, which develops in the absence of treatment at 2-3 weeks of the disease. The cornea becomes diffusely cloudy, a gray infiltrate forms on its surface, turning into a purulent ulcer. The ulcerative process quickly spreads not only along the surface of the cornea, but also deep into it, leading to further perforation of the membrane and the formation of a leucorrhoea. Sometimes the infection can get inside the eye, causing the development of panophthalmitis - a purulent inflammation of all tissues and membranes of the eye.

In adults, the development of gonorrhea of the eyes goes through the same stages as in gonorrhea of newborns. The only difference is that complications from the cornea are more frequent, and the process of development of inflammation is more intense. With timely treatment started, the outcome of the disease is always favorable and a person's visual functions do not suffer.

Article author: Mochalov Pavel Alexandrovich | d. m. n. therapist

Education: Moscow Medical Institute. IM Sechenov, specialty - "General Medicine" in 1991, in 1993 "Occupational Diseases", in 1996 "Therapy".