Abstract

Tuberculosis is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in developing countries including India. The Bacille Calmette-Guerine (BCG) vaccine has been in use for prevention of tuberculosis since 1921. Although BCG is safe, it causes minor adverse reactions such as pain, swelling, redness and rarely suppurative lymphadenitis, BCG osteomyelitis and at times even disseminated disease. The term BCG lymphadenitis applies when lymph nodes have become large enough to be easily palpable and a cause of concern for the parents. Here we report thirteen cases of BCG lymphadenitis with age ranging from 4 month to 2.5 years, eight males and the other five female, all presented with left axillary swelling with no history of constitutional symptoms and without family history of tuberculosis. Routine investigations including chest X-ray were normal. In all the cases, there was history of BCG vaccination prior to appearance of swelling, which did not regress on medical management. Ipsilateral regional lymphadenitis being the most common complication of BCG vaccination a high index of clinical suspicion for BCG adenitis should be kept in mind for patients who are recently vaccinated.

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