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Sentinel node imaging and biopsy in breast cancer patients
1Department of Surgery, St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center, 333 W. Thomas Rd., Suite 203, Phoenix, AZ 85013, USA. Edonahued@aol.com
Background:
Several techniques have been shown to be accurate in identifying axillary sentinel lymph nodes. The accuracy of subareolar blue dye injection is compared with intraparenchymal radioisotope injection.
Methods:
Forty-two consecutive patients with breast cancer were injected with both intraparenchymal technetium-99m and subareolar isosulfan blue dye. After sentinel lymph node identification, an axillary lymph node dissection was performed.
Results:
The blue dye and the technetium-99m localized to the same axillary nodes even though the injection sites were different. The sensitivity of blue dye in identifying axillary sentinel nodes was 100%. The sensitivity of radioisotope injection in identifying sentinel nodes was 97.6%.
Conclusions:
Subareolar blue dye injection is an extremely accurate and cost-effective method of sentinel node identification in breast cancer patients.