Indocyanine green assists with sentinel lymph node mapping in pediatric and adolescent patients

The study was a multi-center prospective study conducted by PeaceOC evaluating indocyanine green (ICG) for identifying sentinel lymph nodes in pediatric patients with skin and soft tissue malignancies

Peritumoral injection of ICG demonstrated almost 80% sensitivity for detecting a sentinel node

All sentinel nodes that contained malignancy were ICG avid

ICG diagnostic performance is similar to smaller pediatric studies previously evaluating ICG and sentinel lymph node biopsy

ICG may outperform blue dye localization based on previously reported literature

The study did not directly compare the effectiveness of ICG to blue dye localization

ICG in most cases was used in conjunction with standard localization techniques such as technetium

No adverse reactions to ICG were identified within 30 days of surgery

Blue dye can cause permanent tattooing

ICG has a favorable safety profile and lacks the permanent tattooing associated with blue dye, making it an attractive visualization adjunct for pediatric sentinel lymph node biopsy