Intraoperative sentinel node biopsy, is it worth the wait?

In our institution, the study of selective sentinel node biopsy (SLNB) is performed intraoperatively. The main objective of our study is to know the proportion of patients who benefits from the waiting of the results of SLNB.

A retrospective analysis of patients operated on our center between January 1st, 2018 and June 30, 2019 was carried out. We included women diagnosed with T1-T2 tumors, treated by lumpectomy and SLNB studied using OSNA method.

Our study included 149 women. There were not statistically significant differences in terms of demographic data between the group treated with axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) and exclusively SLNB group. After analysis of SLN intraoperatively, there were performed 18 axillary lymphadenectomies. Only in six of this 18 cases, three or more sentinel nodes were founded. The location of the tumor, the presence of lymphovascular permeation and the total tumor load (TTL) showed statistically significant differences between groups. Only the TTL was established as the independent factor of the need for ALND.

Obtaining a deferred result of the SLNB allowed reducing the time of anesthesia and occupation of the operating room, since in a high percentage of cases an additional procedure is not performed.