Abstract

Background:Surgery is the mainstay of treatment in gastric carcinoma management with a longstanding controversy regarding the extent of lymphadenectomy. Recent studies have shown 88%sensitivity of Sentinel Node biopsy for patients with gastric cancer. There is a need for evaluation of this technique using cost effective alternative of methylene blue dye.
Methods: This was a prospective study which included all adults with diagnosis of carcinoma stomach planned for surgical resection. Intra-operatively, methylene blue dye was injected into the tumor and the stained lymph nodes were removed along with other visibly enlarged nodes.
Results: A total of 32 subjects were recruited in the study period. Mean age of the patients was 56.59 (±12.02) years. Among all the specimens a total of 127 (35%) of 361 lymph nodes were found to be stained with methylene blue dye. Metastatic deposits were found in 132 of 361 lymph nodes. Bivariate analysis showed 79.52% of the lymph nodes stained with methylene blue were positive for metastases in contrast to 13.2% among those that remained unstained (p 0.001).
Conclusion:Sentinel lymph node mapping using methylene blue is a simple, cost and resource effective technique in all cases of gastric carcinoma undergoing resection, especially in early gastric carcinoma.