Preoperative contrast-enhanced ultrasound combined with intra-lymph node methylene blue injection for sentinel lymph node identification: a minimally invasive sentinel lymph node biopsy tracing approach

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Breast cancer is the most prevalent malignancy in women, making axillary lymph node status crucial for prognosis and treatment decisions.
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Sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) is recommended over axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) to minimize complications in clinically node-negative patients.
3

Contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) offers a promising preoperative method for sentinel lymph node localization, providing real-time imaging.
4

Combining CEUS with methylene blue and indocyanine green injections aims to improve sentinel lymph node detection rates and reduce false negatives.
5

The study enrolled 158 early breast cancer patients to evaluate the efficacy of dual tracing methods for sentinel lymph node identification.

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