Endoscopic-assisted ICG (EASI) technique for sentinel lymph node biopsy in breast cancer

Sentinel lymph node biopsy is currently the standard of care for axillary staging in early breast cancer patients with no clinical or radiological evidence of axillary lymph node involvement. Novel techniques studied in recent years include the use indocyanine green (ICG) fluorescence imaging, which was reported in a recent network meta-analysis to be comparable to standard dual modality in terms of false negative as well as detection rate. However, there have been no standardized operative methods leading to the underutilization of this modality in clinical practice. In addition, technical limitations such as the difficulty in tracing ICG flow in obese patients further restrict the use of ICG fluorescence in sentinel lymph node biopsy. In this article, we describe in detail the use of the endoscopic-assisted ICG technique in performing sentinel lymph node biopsy, which addresses limitations associated with conventional use of ICG fluorescence imaging. The technical novelty of this technique lies in the fact that it has not been previously described in the literature and it allows for the identification of sentinel lymph nodes with minimal incision and tissue disruption as well.