[Analysis of sentinel lymph node in early breast cancer patient - Clinical Hospital Center Rijeka]. 
Sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy is an accurate method for the detection of axillary metastases in early breast cancer patients and is of value as a replacement for axillary dissection.  However, variations in the methods and protocols used for the pathological evaluation of SLN exist in everyday practice.  Therefore, standardization how to detect, dissect, process, stain, assess and report SNL is required in order to stratify patients into adequate prognostic groups.  The aim of this study was to present our experience in SLN analysis in patients with early breast cancer and clinical stage T1-2 and N0.  In the period between 2003 and 2011, 1071 consecutive patients or 1915 SLN were analyzed.  The protocol included intraoperative analysis of histological frozen sections and cytological imprint, followed by analysis of paraffin sections according to the protocol that included sections of whole SLN with the interval of 250 prm.  According to the accepted protocol 75% of SLN were negative.  The obtained results were correlated with literature data.