Reactive Arthritis eMedicine Rheumatology

Description: Reactive arthritis, also known as Reiter syndrome, is an autoimmune condition that develops in response to an infection. In 1916, Hans Reiter described the triad of nongonococcal urethritis, conjunctivitis, and arthritis in a young German officer with bloody dysentery.1 In 1916, Fiessinger and Leroy described 4 patients with what they called oculo-urethro-synovial syndrome and associated the syndrome with an outbreak of Shigella dysentery.
Carlos J Lozada, MD 2008