Real-time Lymphatic Channel Visualization Improves Bilateral Sentinel Lymph Node Detection in Endometrial Cancer

Endometrial cancer is the most common malignancy of the female genital tract. Standard treatment for early-stage disease includes hysterectomy, bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, and lymph node assessment. Sentinel lymph node (SLN) mapping with indocyanine green (ICG) has become widely used as an alternative to systematic lymphadenectomy due to lower morbidity and high detection rates. This randomized clinical trial was designed to compare conventional cervical ICG injection with a modified technique, in which injection is continued until real-time lymphatic channels are visualized intraoperatively, for bilateral SLN detection in patients with clinical early-stage endometrial cancer undergoing robotic surgery.