UNLABELLED: Axillary lymphadenectomy is the standard of care in breast cancer patients. Lymphatic mapping has arisen as an alternative offering less morbidity. OBJECTIVE: To determine the success rate of subareolar blue dye injection (SM) in sentinel node (SN) biopsy and its value in axillary staging. METHODS: 62 stages I and II breast cancer patients without palpable axillary nodes received subareolar injection of blue dye; an intraoperative study of the SN was carried out. Axillary lymphadenectomy was carried out in all patients. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value were measured. RESULTS: In 58/62 patients (93.5%), SN was identified; 19/58(32%) patients had nodal metastases, 18 were identified in intraoperative study, and only one false negative; 12/18 patients showed metastasis in other axillary nodes (66%), in 6 (27%) the only metastasis site was SN. Sensitivity/specificity of the SN was 92.8 and 88.6%, respectively. Positive predictive value is 72.2% and negative predictive value is 97.5% CONCLUSION: SAI of blue dye allows identification of SN in 93.5%; with high sensitivity. SN negative predictive value is 97.5% in this study.
UNLABELLED: Axillary lymphadenectomy is the standard of care in breast cancerpatients. Lymphatic mapping has arisen as an alternative offering less morbidity. OBJECTIVE: To determine the success rate of subareolar blue dye injection (SM) in sentinel node (SN) biopsy and its value in axillary staging. METHODS: 62 stages I and II breast cancerpatients without palpable axillary nodes received subareolar injection of blue dye; an intraoperative study of the SN was carried out. Axillary lymphadenectomy was carried out in all patients. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value were measured. RESULTS: In 58/62 patients (93.5%), SN was identified; 19/58(32%) patients had nodal metastases, 18 were identified in intraoperative study, and only one false negative; 12/18 patients showed metastasis in other axillary nodes (66%), in 6 (27%) the only metastasis site was SN. Sensitivity/specificity of the SN was 92.8 and 88.6%, respectively. Positive predictive value is 72.2% and negative predictive value is 97.5% CONCLUSION: SAI of blue dye allows identification of SN in 93.5%; with high sensitivity. SN negative predictive value is 97.5% in this study.