Sentinel lymph node examination for cancer of the uterine cervix
Abstract
Sentinel lymph node biopsy is a novel method for the surgical management of patients with cervical cancer. Sentinel nodes have a higher chance of harbouring metastases than non-sentinel nodes. Assessment of sentinel nodes provides an opportunity to stage patients intraoperatively and avoid complete pelvic lymph node dissection and hence it’s morbidities. The aim of this article is to review the diagnostic performance of sentinel node detection, to determine which techniques (blue dye, Tc or both) has the highest detection rate and sensitivity, and also to illustrate different approaches of histological assessment of the sentinel lymph node biopsy.
