Disseminated Infection After Bacille Calmette‐Guérin Instillation for Treatment of Bladder Carcinoma

Abstract

Intravesical instillations of bacille Calmette-Gue rin (BCG), an attenuated organism derived from the bovine tubercle bacillus Mycobacterium bovis, are frequently accompanied by local side effects, but adverse systemic reactions occur in 3%-5% of patients We describe two patients who developed, after intravesical instillation of BCG, pancytopenia associated with mycobacterial infection and well-formed granulomas in bone marrow biopsy specimens.