SummaryTuberculous dactylitis is easily curable by specific chemotherapy but the diagnosis is often overlooked mainly because of the relalative rarity of skeletal tuberculosis, the deficiency of the initial X-ray findings and the absence of fast bacilli in the smears from sinus tracts.The recovery in these sites ofStaphylococcus aureusmerely signifies a colonising by these bacteria but discards the diagnosis outright, while a biopsy specimen of tissue will often assert it.