New Mapping for SLN Biopsy: ICG Dye and Near Infra-Red Camera

Maranda K. Pahlkotter, MD; Margaret W. Parnell, MD, FACS

Product Details
Product ID: ACS-5684
Year Produced: 2018
Length: 5 min.


This video demonstrates our technique for sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy in a patient with breast cancer using indocyanine green (ICG) dye and the infrared camera system. The traditional method for performing SLN biopsy has been to inject technetium-99m and use a gamma probe to identify sentinel lymph nodes. At our institution in particular, this method requires that the technetium-99m be delivered from outside facilities and that the patient must go to nuclear medicine which is located in a different building to have the injection on the morning of their surgery. This process causes increased discomfort and inconvenience for the patient along with increased cost and potential OR delays. The infrared camera along with ICG dye has been introduced as an alternative method for SLN mapping. Using this technique, the dye is injected in the operating room by the surgeon just prior to the case after anesthesia has been induced. The patient is then prepped and draped and the infrared camera is then used to identify the sentinel lymph node by fluorescence. We have found this process to be more efficient and equally as effective as the traditional method. This technology was initially used for cardiac surgery however multiple uses for the ICG dye and infrared camera system have since emerged. This process is still standard of care as it identifies the SLN for biopsy and pathology, it is simply another approach that we have found to be superior to our traditional technique