[Reliability of extemporaneous histological sentinel lymph node examination during breast surgery for neoplasia]. / Affidabilità dell'esame istologico estemporaneo del linfonodo sentinella in corso di chirurgia mammaria per neoplasia.

Lymphatic mapping and sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy for breast cancer is rapidly becoming the standard of care. This is mainly due to the accuracy of the procedure, with a significant decrease in morbidity compared with the standard level III node dissection. We present our experience with SLN biopsy and a small series in which we performed an immediate histologic evaluation of the SLN: in case of positive SLN, a complete lymph node dissection was carried out in the same operative time, thus reducing the need of a second operation. In our experience, we had a 100% accordance between immediate and definitive results: we had neither false positive, which could lead to overtreat the patients with an unnecessary lymph node dissection, nor false negative.