TABLE 2.

Characteristics of Studies Involving the Combination Procedure Without Routine ALND

Author	Sample Size*	Pre-NST Marking at Time of FNA/CNB	Pre-NST Marking After FNA/CNB	Post-NST Marking	Sampling SLNB	IFR†, %	ML is SLN, %	Confirmation Removal ML	Lymph Nodes‡, Median (Range)	ALND, %	Ax-pCR, %
Dashevsky	21	Clip	NA	Wire	Tc + blue	100.0	NR	XR	NR	0.0	33.3
Diego	29	Clip	NA	Iodine seed	Tc + blue	100.0	91.0	XR	4 (1–11)	23.3	63.0
Kim	11	Clip	NA	Wire	Tc + blue	100.0	NR	XR/palpation	NR	45.5	36.4
Nguyen	20	NA	Clip	Iodine seed	Tc and/or blue	100.0	NR	XR	NR	NR	NR
Park	20	NA	Charcoal	NA	Tc and/or blue	100.0	75.0	NA	3 (1–12)	60.0	50.0
Plecha	19	Clip	NA	Wire	Tc ± blue	100.0	100.0	XR/PA	5.7 (mean)	NR	NR
Simons (data submitted)	139	NA	Clip/Iodine Seed	Iodine seed/wire	Tc and/or blue	99.3	64.6	XR/PA	2 (1–9)	22.3	36.0
Taback	19	Clip (78.9%)	Electromagnetic Reflector	NA	Tc + blue	100.0	63.2	XR	4 (2–10)	31.6	31.6

NA indicates not applicable; NR, not reported (a pathologic assessment); Tc, technetium; XR, specimen radiography.

^*Patients who underwent successful ML in combination with SLNB.

^†IFR refers to proportion of patients in whom at least 1 lymph node could be identified with the combination procedure.

^‡Number of lymph nodes of the combination procedure and not the number of lymph nodes of either ML or either SLNB.