A Rare Case Report of BCG Induced Balanitis in a Patient with Transitional Cell Carcinoma of Urinary Bladder

Primary Bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG) infection of the glans penis is not a very common entity and has been rarely reported in literature. BCG has been used as an adjuvant therapy in patients of transitional cell urinary bladder carcinoma following transurethral resection of bladder tumor. We report a 66-year-old male patient who was being managed for urinary bladder carcinoma with nine sittings of adjuvant BCG therapy. He developed painless swelling with multiple pustules over glans penis and prepuce along with inguinal lymphadenopathy. He had a BCG inoculation scar over his arm and his chest X-ray was within normal limits. His workup for sexually transmitted disease was negative. The biopsy from the nodule on prepuce revealed mixed inflammatory infiltrate comprising of neutrophils, lymphocytes, and eosinophils along with numerous congested blood vessels and hemosiderin macrophages. Mycobacterium tuberculosis gene expert from tissue was positive for acid fast bacilli (AFB). Fine-needle aspiration cytology from the right inguinal lymph node also revealed AFB on Ziehl–Neelsen stain. The BCG immunotherapy was stopped and the patient was started on a standard four-drug antitubercular therapy comprising isoniazid, rifampicin, ethambutol, and pyrazinamide along with daily doses of pyridoxine. The edema resolved and papules subsided within 2 weeks after starting antitubercular therapy. This is a very rare presentation although intravesical BCG therapy is a very common treatment modality, hence this report is intended to increase awareness of this condition in dermatologists and venereologists.