Successful Endovascular Treatment of Abdominal Aortic Rupture Secondary to Bacillus Calmette-Guerin Vaccine

Abstract: Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccine has been successfully used to treat bladder cancer, but sporadic cases of mycotic arterial aneurysms have appeared in the literature. These patients typically develop a mycobacterium bovis (M. bovis) infection of an existing aneurysm or graft. This report describes a patient who ruptured his non-aneurysmal abdominal aorta years after intravesicular BCG therapy. Emergent aortic endograft repair was successful, and after subsequent evaluation confirmed M. bovis infection, the patient was treated with a prolonged course of antimycobacterial therapy. Vascular surgeons should maintain suspicion for atypical aortic ruptures in patients with exposure to intravesicular BCG.