axillary clearance
Last reviewed 01/2018
Axillary lymph node clearance entails complete removal of all lymph nodes as opposed to the selective sampling of a few. It has the advantages of:
- more thorough staging of axillary metastasis than sampling alone
- theoretically less risk of local recurrence within axilla
However, it has a number of negative aspects:
- up to half of all patients treated with axillary clearance have no evidence of axillary disease; this group have had an unnecessary procedure with its associated morbidity
- there is increased morbidity relative to sampling alone, for example, nerve damage and lymphoedema; for this reason, nodal clearance should not be combined with radiotherapy