As a medical term, it refers to both the fingers and the toes.

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.

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.

[3] This medical sign article is a stub.