Dactylitis or sausage digit is inflammation of an entire digit (a finger or toe),
The word dactyl comes from the Greek language word daktylos 'finger'. As a medical term, it refers to both the fingers and the toes.
Associated conditions
Dactylitis can occur in seronegative arthropathies, such as psoriatic arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis, and in sickle-cell disease as result of a vasoocclusive crisis with bone infarcts, and in infectious conditions including
tuberculosis,
syphilis, and
leprosy. In reactive arthritis, sausage fingers occur due to synovitis.
[Robbins, Stanley Leonard; Kumar, Vinay; Abbas, Abdul K.; Cotran, Ramzi S.; Fausto, Nelson (2010). "Robbins and Cotran pathologic basis of disease". In Vinay Kumar, Abul K. Abbas, Nelson Fausto. Robbins Pathology Series (Elsevier). p. 205. .] Dactylitis may also be seen with
sarcoidosis.
In sickle-cell disease it typically occurs after 6 months of age (as in infants protective fetal hemoglobin, HbF, is replaced with adult hemoglobin and the disease manifests) and is often the first clinical presentation of the disorder.
