Fluorescence method combined with staining for sentinel lymph node biopsy improves the detection rate of sentinel lymph nodes

  In recent years, sentinel lymph node biopsy has been routinely used for axillary lymph node staging in breast cancer patients, and has replaced traditional axillary lymph node dissection to some extent. At present, the main tracing methods used for sentinel lymph node biopsy at home and abroad are staining method, nuclear method and the combination of both methods. However, both staining and nuclide methods have disadvantages to some extent, such as the detection rate of staining method is low, about 70-80%, and the staining method requires a long learning curve for anterior lymph node biopsy technique; while the detection rate of nuclide method is high, but the nuclide has radioactive contamination, and the requirements for equipment are high, requiring special detectors and high costs, so it cannot be used in China. widely used. Nowadays, all domestic tertiary hospitals use staining method as the main tracing method for sentinel lymph node biopsy, and our department also uses staining method as the main method for sentinel lymph node biopsy.  Fluoroscopic sentinel lymph node biopsy technique is a new technique developed in recent years, which has been reported at home and abroad. Its main advantage is that it can dynamically observe the alignment of the fluorescent agent in the lymphatic vessels and the location of the anterior lymph nodes under direct vision, which cannot be achieved by the staining method.  Recently, the Department of General Surgery has successfully introduced the fluoroscopy technique of sentinel lymph node biopsy and successfully searched for sentinel lymph nodes using the double tracer method of staining and fluoroscopy. Through clinical practice, it was confirmed that the dual tracer method of fluoroscopy combined with staining for sentinel lymph node biopsy is more effective and accurate compared with the previous single stain tracer method in finding sentinel lymph nodes, and at the same time, it can save operation time and reduce the incidence of postoperative complications.  Figure 1: A special instrument for axillary anterior sentinel lymph node fluoroscopy.      Figure 2 shows the image on the display using the fluorescence detector approximately 10 minutes after the injection of indocyanine green (ICG), which clearly shows the flow path of the fluorescent agent in the lymphatic vessels and stagnates close to the axillary anterior sentinel lymph node. Figure 3 shows the resected anterior sentinel lymph node. The left image shows the large specimen with visible blue staining of 1, 2 and 3 anterior sentinel lymph nodes, and the right image shows the anterior sentinel lymph nodes under the fluorescence detector (in addition to the fluorescence of blue stained 1, 2 and 3 lymph nodes, 4 and 6 non-blue stained lymph nodes also fluoresced), which shows that the fluorescence method has improved the detection rate of anterior sentinel lymph nodes.