A new technique called sentinel lymph node mapping and biopsy often eliminates the need for removing some or all lymph nodes by testing the first lymph node for cancer.
Lymphoscintigraphy (sentinel lymph node mapping) is an imaging technique used to identify the lymph drainage basin, determine the number of sentinel nodes, differentiate sentinel nodes from subsequent nodes, locate the sentinel node in an unexpected location, and mark the sentinel node over the skin for biopsy.
Questions related to which patients should have resection of regional lymph nodes have led to an intermediary procedure known as sentinel node mapping and biopsy.
If they show microscopic deposits of tumor, then the full resection of the lymph node group may be completed.
the discovery that the human lymphatic system can be mapped with radioactive dyes, and that the lymph node(s) closest to a tumor serve to filter and trap cancer cells.
A sentinel lymph node is the first lymph node that drains a cancer. If a cancer has not spread to the first draining lymph node near a cancer, there is a high likelihood it has not spread elsewhere.
These sentinel nodes are thus identifiable and are the most likely to harbor any regional metastatic disease. If these nodes alone are biopsied and are normal, the rest of the lymph node group can be spared.
A sentinel lymph node is the first lymph node that drains a cancer. If a cancer has not spread to the first draining lymph node near a cancer, there is a high likelihood it has not spread elsewhere.
One study found that only 2.6% of patients who had SLNB developed lymphedema, compared to 27% of patients who had ALND.
Sentinel-node biopsy
The CPT code for superficial needle biopsy of inguinal lymph node is 38505.
poor timing of the dye injection, the way in which the pathologist prepared the tissue for examination, or the existence of previously undiscovered sentinel nodes.
A technique that uses blue dye to map the lymphatic system was developed in the 1980s and applied to the treatment of melanoma in 1989