Disseminated Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) Infection Caused By Inadvertent Intravenous Infusion of BCG for the Treatment of Bladder Cancer: Case Report

Abstract

Nonmuscle invasive bladder cancer is a common malignancy. After transurethral resection, intravesical administration of Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) is a treatment that is generally used for non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer. Intravesical BCG treatment decrease thenumber of tumor recurrence and progression. The complications of BCG therapy are importantthat clinicians are aware of these. Serious complications are uncommon with BCG treatment, butlife-threatening side effects such as sepsis, hepatitis and pneumonia may occur. The person who applies the intravesical BCG must be very careful throughout the entire administration procedure. Wepresent a patient whom an intravenous BCG infusion was inadvertently administered and the patient was successfully treated with anti-tuberculin therapy. A review of available literature on thepossible complications of this treatment have been performed.