Introduction: The aim of this paper is to evaluate the results of intraoperative sentinel node detection in colon cancer patients and to compare the number of nodes retrieved per specimen in comparison with standard resection.
Methods: Patients undergoing elective colon cancer resection were included in the study. The specimen and the sentinel lymph node were sent for histopathological examination. A group of patients from 2011 who underwent elective resection served as the study control.
Results: The control group comprised 56 patients. The average node count was 12.73 (4-27). The study group included 102 patients; 29 patients had to be excluded because of protocol deviation. Out of the remaining 73 (46 male and 27 female) patients, 24 were N-positive and 2 of them were pN1c. In the remaining 22 patients, the sentinel node was positive in 8 cases, corresponding to a sensitivity of 36.36%. The average lymph node count was 15.97(3-30) after patent blue dye injection.
Conclusion: Intraoperative sentinel lymph node detection is an easy and feasible method. Despite the low sensitivity, the main positive effect of the method is the increased lymph node count per resection specimen.