This is a fairly new surgical approach and should only be performed by an experienced team. One leading surgeon recommends that you look for a physician who has performed at least twenty sentinel node dissections. It is not a foolproof technique. Your surgeon may also massage the breast area after putting in the dye and tracer, to improve the chance that it will be absorbed by the tissues and drain away properly. Undergoing a sentinel lymph node dissection does NOT guarantee that you will not have any side effects of surgery, such as pain, numbness, or lymphedema.
Some women also notice blue in their urine immediately after the surgery.
This does NOT mean that anything has gone wrong. The National Surgical Adjuvant Breast Project, sponsored by the National Cancer Institute, is currently studying the best way to evaluate underarm lymph nodes in breast cancer. All surgeons participating in the study are trained to do sentinel node dissection. However, if you decide to participate, the study cannot promise you will receive the sentinel node procedure. Only half of study participants receive it.