Lymphknotenszintigraphie

Sentinel is called in German guards. Sentinel lymph node scintigraphy searches for the lymph node closest to the tumor. This is very important because of the large differences in the lymphatic drainage from person to person and also helps to avoid the unnecessary removal of several healthy lymph nodes.

The technical process is usually designed so that with a very fine needle tiny depots of a radioactive substance under the skin around the tumor / scar (skin tumor) around or in the upper outer portion of the breast (breast cancer) are injected and then with a nuclear medicine Camera the efflux of the substance is traced through the lymph channels to the sentinel lymph node. Usually, the tracking of the sentinel lymph node succeeds within a few minutes. In some cases, late shots may be required after a few hours if the lymphatic channels are delayed. Sentinel lymph node scintigraphy for sentinel lymph node search is currently a standard study in patients with breast cancer and melanoma (black skin cancer) and is also successfully used for example in intestinal tumors. You do not have to be sober for the examination, otherwise nothing else should be considered in the preparation.