Learning curve for the detection of axillary sentinel lymph node in breast cancer

Aim: Sentinel axillary lymph node (SALN) detection is a new technique. Surgeons must progress up a learning curve in order to guarantee quality and safety equivalent to axillary lymphadenectomy. To ensure accurate staging of patients this learning curve must include SALN detection and an axillary lymphadenectomy. The aim of our work was to validate the principles and evaluate the consequences of learning curve for SALN detection from a prospective series of 200 consecutive patients. Method: Prospective assessment was made of the detection and false negative rates, post operative morbidity as abcess and seroma, and length of hospital stay. Results: We evaluated the performance from the first to the hundredth case for each surgeon. Detection rate improved to 85% after patient number 10. False negative rate was less than 6%. Post operative axillary morbidity included 11% of seromas and 2% of abcess. Mean hospital stay was 2.8 days. Conclusion: Multidisciplinary validation of the learning period contributes to an accurate and safe SALN. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.