Abstract
The treatment of early-stage vulvar cancer previously included a complete inguinofemoral lymph node dissection (IFLD). However, IFLD is associated with a substantially high probability of postoperative complications: up to two-thirds of patients who have IFLD performed experience wound infection or breakdown, formation of lymphocytes, or long-term lymphedema. For this reason, lymphatic mapping and sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) for early-stage vulvar cancer have been studied. Compared to IFLD, SLNB has significantly fewer complications and is becoming a more common practice in treatment for selected patients with early-stage vulvar cancer. From our literature review, we discuss SLNB as part of a standard treatment for patients with early-stage vulvar cancer, and we provide future considerations for its use in the management of vulvar cancer.
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Kakuda, M., Kobayashi, E., Yoshino, K., Kimura, T. (2023). Sentinel Node Mapping in Vulva Cancer. In: Shoupe, D. (eds) Handbook of Gynecology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-14881-1_37
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-14881-1_37
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