Abstract
PURPOSE: Near-infrared fluorescence imaging using indocyanine green (ICG) combined with radioactive markers has the potential to improve sentinel lymph-node (SLN) mapping in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). This study aimed to evaluate the ability of (99m)Tc and ICG in identifying the sentinel lymph nodes in patients with early stage OSCC. METHODS: Data were collected prospectively, and a retrospective analysis of 15 patients with early stage OSCC and a cN0 neck was performed. All patients received peritumoral injection of (99m)Tc the day before surgery and ICG was administered intraoperatively. Intentionally, the application of the two different tracers were done by two different physicians with varying degrees of experience. The number of identified lymph nodes positive for (99m)Tc and ICG, the overlap or possible discrepancies of both methods, and the time until fluorescence signals of ICG were detected were noted. RESULTS: In all patients, a 100% agreement in sentinel lymph-node identification was achieved, regardless of both the exact location of the peritumoral injection and the experience of the injecting surgeon. Time until ICG accumulation in the sentinel lymph node was consistently found to be between 1 and 3 min. CONCLUSION: ICG constitutes a viable and useful addition to (99m)Tc for intraoperative sentinel lymph-node detection in this study.