Quotation from: Manual of Surgery

Written by: Alexander Miles and Alexis Thomson


#Tuberculous dactylitis# is the name applied to a diffuse form of the
disease as it affects the phalanges, metacarpal or metatarsal bones. The
lesion presents, on a small scale, all the anatomical changes that have
been described as occurring in the medulla of the tibia or ulna, and
they are easily followed in skiagrams. A periosteal type of dactylitis
is also met with.


The _clinical features_ are those of a spindle-shaped swelling of a
finger or toe, indolent, painless, and interfering but little with the
function of the digit. Recovery may eventually occur without
suppuration, but it is common to have the formation of a cold abscess,
which bursts and forms one or more sinuses. It may be difficult to
differentiate tuberculous dactylitis from the enlargement of the
phalanges in inherited syphilis (syphilitic dactylitis), especially when
the tuberculous lesion occurs in a child who is the subject of inherited
syphilis.

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