[Tuberculosis of the calcaneus. Treatment and differential diagnosis (author's transl)]

Eight lesions in the calcaneus have been treated surgically between 1955 and 1979; of these, six were due to tuberculosis, one to chronic osteomyelitis and the other was a cyst. The diagnosis was confirmed bacteriologically and histologically. In all cases (average age 49.1 years) the human bacillus was proved to be the cause of an haematogenous infection. The lesion was confined to the posterior part of the bone and there was no extension into the calcaneo-navicular joint. Two patients presented with fistulae. The interval from the onset of symptoms to confirmation of the diagnosis averaged 9.1 months. Three patients had previously been treated for tuberculosis (lung, pleura, kidney) and another patient, who had a simultaneous tuberculous infection of a sternoclavicular joint had suffered from tuberculosis cervical lymphadenitis at the age of nine years.U