The Role of Real-time Appearance of Lymphatic Flow in Lymphatic Mapping in Endometrial Cancer

Purpose of the study Primary treatment of clinical early stage endometrial cancer is total hysterectomy, bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, and lymph node dissection for staging. It was stated in the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guideline that sentinel lymph node biopsy can be performed as an alternative to systematic lymphadenectomy, including high-risk endometrial cancer histologies (2). In a study, the rate of bilateral sentinel lymph node detection in sentinel lymph node mapping using the cervical injection technique of indocyanine green was found to be 73.3%. After re-injection of cervical indocyanine green in patients whose sentinel lymph node could not be detected, the rate of detection of bilateral sentinel lymph nodes increased to 94.5% (4). However, repeated cervical injection causes a waste of time. In our clinic, sentinel lymph node mapping method is applied using indocyanine green for lymph node dissection for staging purposes, since the robotic system has a fluorescent imaging system in patients operated with robotic surgery for endometrial cancer. In accordance with the literature, our bilateral sentinel lymph node detection rate was 75%. During cervical indocyanine green injection in our last 6 patients, the lymphatic channels in the pelvic region were followed simultaneously with the injection and indocyanine injection was performed until the channels were seen transperitoneally. Bilateral lymphatic channels were seen in all of these patients, and sentinel lymph nodes were found bilaterally in all of them. The aim of the planned study is to compare the traditional cervical indocyanine green injection and indocyanine injection until the lymphatic channels are visualized for bilateral detection of sentinel lymph nodes in patients with clinical early stage endometrial cancer. Material-Method The number of patients planned to be included in the study was calculated as 24 patients in both groups, with an alpha error value of 5% and a statistical power above 80% when the bilateral sentinel lymph node detection rate was 75% in the traditional method and 99% in the study group (SPH analytics 2021).