A concordance study of subareolar and subdermal injections for breast cancer sentinel lymph node mapping.
BACKGROUND
There is disagreement regarding the preferred injection site for breast sentinel lymph node mapping.


METHODS
The concordance of blue staining and radioactivity in the sentinel nodes of 730 consecutive patients was analyzed based on injection of mapping agents into the same or separate intradermal and subareolar sites.


RESULTS
There were no significant differences in identification rates or the mean number of sentinel nodes whether agents were injected into the same or separate sites. In each group, a concordant sentinel node (both blue and "hot") was identified in >90% of patients (P = not significant). There were no significant differences in the percentage of sentinel nodes identified as both blue and hot.


CONCLUSIONS
Separate subdermal and subareolar injections of mapping agents drain to the same sentinel node as often as injections into the same location. These two injection techniques appear to result in the identification of the same sentinel nodes.
Department of Surgery, Section of Surgical Oncology, Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, AZ 85259, USA. gray.richard@mayo.edu
Richard J
RJ
Gray
Barbara A
BA
Pockaj
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007279:Injections, Subcutaneous; D008875:Middle Aged; D009558:Nipples; D021701:Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy / Q000379:methods*