Indocyanine green assists with sentinel lymph node mapping in pediatric and adolescent patients

So just how accurate is ICG for detecting sentinel lymph nodes in pediatric oncology? Hi, I'm Doctor Sophia Schermerhorn from Cincinnati Children's, and in this multi-center prospective study by PeaceOC, we evaluated endocyanin green, also known as ICGs, safety and effectiveness in identifying sentinel lymph nodes in pediatric patients with skin and soft tissue malignancies. Overall, peritumoral injection of ICG demonstrated. Almost an 80% sensitivity for detecting a sentinel node. In addition, all sentinel nodes that contained malignancy were ICG avid. This diagnostic performance is similar to smaller pediatric studies that have done previously evaluating ICG and sentinel lymph node biopsy and may outperform blue dye localization based on previously reported literature. However, it's important to note that this study did not directly compare the effect. effectiveness of ICG compared to blue dye localization and ICG in most cases was used in conjunction with standard localization techniques such as technetium. Importantly, we identified no adverse reactions within 30 days of surgery. This favorable safety profile, along with the lack of permanent tattooing that can sometimes be seen with blue dye, makes ICG an attractive visualization adjunct that can be used for pediatric sentinel lymph node biopsy.