Clinical Course of Bacillus Calmette-Guerin Lymphadenitis

Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccination can cause lymphadenitis. The purpose of the current study was to describe patient characteristics and clinical courses of lymphadenitis associated with BCG vaccination. A total of 171 patients who visited a tertiary hospital with a diagnosis of BCG-associated lymphadenitis between January 2012 and June 2017 were included. The diagnostic criteria were a history of BCG vaccination on the symptomatic side, absence of tenderness and raised temperature over the swelling, absence of fever and constitutional symptoms, and isolated axillary (or supraclavicular/cervical) lymph node (LN) enlargement. Treatment strategies included observation, antibiotics, incision and drainage or needle aspiration (I&D/NA), and surgical excision. The median follow-up period was 40 days (range 1−1245 days). The median age at the first visit was 5.5 months (range 0.9−83.7 months). The most common location was the axilla (81.3%). The respective numbers of patients managed via observation, I&D/NA, antibiotics, and surgical excision were 99, 47, 5, and 20. LNs were significantly more enlarged in the I&D/NA group than in the antibiotics group and the observation group. The respective times taken for residual lesions to reduce to < 20% were approximately 3 months, 4 months, and 5 months in the antibiotics, observation, and I&D/NA groups. The surgery group had significantly fewer residual lesions than the observation group at the last visit, but there was no significant difference in current residual lesions between the groups. LNs were significantly larger in the I&D/NA group. The surgery group exhibited the least residual lesions at the last visit, but there was no significant difference in current status.