Aims. Our purpose was to describe an unusual series of 21 patients with
Introduction and Aims: Solitary osseous lesions of tuberculosis are uncommonly reported in children. Historically, bone lesions were predominantly of the multifocal and disseminated type. The aim of this paper is to describe the protean radiological manifestations of tuberculosis in sites other than the spine and synovium, and their resemblance to benign and malignant bone lesions. Method: Forty-nine children, aged 1–12 years with histologically confirmed osseous lesions of tuberculosis, were reviewed between 1984 and 2001. Symptoms ranged from two weeks to three months. There were a total of 59 lesions. Forty-three children had solitary, and six had multifocal lesions. Thirty lesions were in the metaphyses, six in the diaphyses and five in the epiphyses. The remainder were in the small and flat bones. Four basic patterns of bone lesions were seen. The majority were cystic in type (34), infiltrative (10), focal erosions (nine) and spina ventosa lesions (6). Several bone lesions resembled pyogenic and