Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 17, 2026
Endoscopic Bilateral Nipple-sparing Mastectomy via a Single Axillary Incision with Immediate Pre-pectoral Implant-based Breast Reconstruction
Published on: May 17, 2024
Sentinel lymph node biopsy is feasible even after total mastectomy
Mattia Intra1, Paolo Veronesi, Oreste D Gentilini
1Division of Breast Surgery, European Institute of Oncology, Milan, Italy. mattia.intra@ieo.it
Background:
Previous mastectomy is unanimously considered to represent an absolute technical contraindication to sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB).
Methods:
Four patients who underwent total mastectomy and plastic reconstruction with prosthesis, developed, during the follow up, a unique invasive limited local subdermic recurrence amenable to surgical excision, with clinically negative axillary nodes. In all patients preoperative lymphoscintigraphy with subdermal injection of (99m)Tc-labeled colloidal particles correctly showed an axillary sentinel lymph node (SLN).
Results:
Metastases in SLN were detected in two patients, and a complete axillary dissection followed. The remaining two patients had a negative SLN and no axillary clearance was performed.
Conclusions:
In selected cases, the subdermal injection of radioisotope permits the identification of an axillary SLN, even in mastectomized patients. Despite SLNB in mastectomized patients being technically feasible, only a larger population and longer patient follow up could confirm its true predictive value. However, there are no anatomical or physiological reasons to exclude "a priori" this diagnostic opportunity.
