الفهرس 
ANATOMY OF BREASTOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
A
xillary lymph nodes (LNs) are known to be the most important prognostic factor for recurrence and survival in the management of patients with early breast cancer. Blue dye & radio-active isotopes are the most widely used tracers in the mapping of axillary sentinel node (SN) biopsy, these tracers still have several drawbacks. Indocyanine green (ICG) has the potential for guiding SN biopsy.
Thirty-five patients with early breast cancer, having clinical & radiological node-negative, underwent SN biopsy with combined ICG & Patent blue (PB) dye for localization of sentinel nodes (SNs). The obtained LNs were histopathologically investigated.
This study aimed to assess the feasibility of using ICG for SN biopsy, to calculate the detection rate, and to assess the safety of ICG dye.
The mean age of the patients was 51.94 years. The detection rate of SN depending on ICG was 100%, and 91% depending on the PB dye visualization. from 129 SNs dissected from the 35 recruited patients, with a mean of 2.31 ± 1.23 nodes/patient in case of SN detection by the PB dye, and a mean of 3.69 ± 0.72 nodes/patient in case of SN detection by ICG (p<0.001). No complications or adverse actions were recorded in all patients.
This study demonstrated that ICG is a feasible technique for SN biopsy with a high detection rate and can be used safely.
CONCLUSION
T
he ICG fluorescence technique is a feasible method for the identification of sentinel lymph nodes. The Indocyanine Green fluorescence method permits a high detection rate of sentinel lymph nodes and transcutaneous identification of lymphatic flow pathways with high safety and with no side effects from Indocyanine Green. This technique has a great potential as an alternative method for the traditional sentinel lymph node biopsy using the radioactive agents or the blue dyes.