Effect of preoperative colonoscopic tattooing on lymph node harvest in T1 XXXX .

@entity1 @entity505 @entity14
OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to identify the impact of preoperative colonoscopic tattooing (PCT) on lymph node harvest in T1 @entity14 @entity1 . MATERIAL AND METHODS: One hundred and forty-three @entity1 were included who underwent curative resection and were diagnosed with T1 @entity14 . These @entity1 were categorized into the tattooing group and the non-tattooing group depending on whether preoperative India ink tattooing was done. Clinicopathological findings and lymph node harvest were compared between the two groups. RESULTS: The median number of lymph nodes examined was 18 in the tattooing group and 13 in the non-tattooing group (p   <   0.001). The rate of adequate lymph node harvest (retrieval of more than 12 lymph nodes) was higher in the tattooing group than that in the non-tattooing group (83.7 vs. 58.5  %, p   =   0.002). The PCT was significantly associated with adequate lymph node harvest in multivariate analysis (hazard ratio, 3.8; 95  % confidence interval, 1.5-9.2; p   =   0.003). Among the 40 @entity1 who showed at least one @entity505 particle-containing lymph nodes, the positive lymph node rate was not different between @entity505 -containing LNs (0.9  %) and non- @entity505 -containing LNs (1.7  %). CONCLUSIONS: PCT was associated with higher lymph node yield in T1 @entity14 . It is questionable if tattooing has additional detection power as a sentinel lymph node mapping tool in T1 @entity14 .
