The Effect of Breast Reconstruction on Maintaining a Proper Body Posture in Patients After Mastectomy

Sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) has been explored as a method to determine the need for axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) in breast cancer patients. In theory, a properly performed negative SLNB should accurately identify those patients without axillary node involvement, thereby obviating the need for a more morbid ALND. The risk of arm morbidity, particularly lymphedema, chronic pain, shoulder-arm dysfunctions and other complications is significantly lower after SLNB than ALND.