Abstract
Objectives: Breast conservation surgery widely in form of wide local excision and sentinel lymph node biopsy in the management of patients presenting with early breast cancer. The aim of this study is to analyze the effectiveness of the of the breast conservation surgery and sentinel lymph node biopsy using the methylene blue dye. Methods: this retrospective cross sectional study conducted at Nov.2014 – Dec.2019 Ninety-six females Patients with stage I and II breast cancer were included in this, patients with stage III and IV, clinically suspicious axillary lymph nodes, and male patients were excluded from this study. Injection of methylene blue dye done around the breast mass. Resection of the breast tumor done until negative margins achieved, then dissection of the axilla was done and the stained lymph node or nodes were excised and were sent for frozen section examination, when the result was negative no further axillary dissection were done, but when result was positive we did axillary lymph node dissection. Results: The current study showed a sensitivity of 93%, specificity of 82%, positive predictive value of 85%, negative predictive value of 92%, and the accuracy of the procedure was 88%. The most frequent complication was seroma formation and wound infection in 12.5% and 7.3 % respectively, some dye related complications were reported including tattooing of the skin in 10.4% of patients, blue urine in 3.1% of patients and mild allergic reactions in 2% of patients. Conclusions: The technique of wide local excision and SLN biopsy using the methylene blue dye is safe and effective technique for breast conservation surgery especially in the regions were no facilities are available for the radiolabeled colloid.
