A bizarre appearance of a common disease, tuberculous dactylitis, involving multiple digits in an adult

Abstract

Tuberculosis is a common illness in developing nations. Tuberculous dactylitis is an unusual manifestation of tuberculous osteomyelitis seen predominantly in children. A woman presented with painless, fusiform swelling of multiple digits of the hand. Synovial biopsy revealed granulomatous inflammation and the pus smear was positive for acid-fast bacilli. She underwent debridement of the involved digits and was initiated on antituberculous therapy. This is an unusual presentation of tuberculous dactylitis in an immunocompetent host which involved multiple digits in a single hand.