Axillary Lymphatic Evaluation: A Solution to a Complex Problem

Excerpt

In the recent article, “Identification and Preservation of Arm Lymphatic System in Axillary Dissection for Breast Cancer to Reduce Arm Lymphedema Events: a Randomized Clinical Trial,” Yuan and colleagues describe their technique for a variation on the axillary reverse mapping (ARM) technique, which they have termed iDEntification and Preservation of ARm lymphaTic system (DEPART). The authors aim to further improve on decreased lymphedema rates by identifying the complete arm lymphatic system. They identified arm nodes with indocyanine green (ICG) initially and subsequently injected them directly with additional methylene blue (MB) in order to further identify subsequent echelon nodes.1 …