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Background: After two decades from its introduction in the lateral skull base paraganglioma surgery, the indications and results of preoperative internal carotid artery stenting should be critically assessed. Materials and Methods: Monocentric retrospective study on 26 patients affected by head and neck paragangliomas (19 tympanojugular paragangliomas, 4 carotid body paragangliomas, 3 vagal paragangliomas) preoperatively treated with internal carotid artery stents between 2008 and 2023. The preoperative findings, the intraoperative complications and the final surgical results were analyzed. Results: The stent complication rate was less than 3.1%. Self-expanding highly flexible intracranial nitinol stents were applied. In all cases, it was possible to completely mobilize the internal carotid artery and perform a vascular dissection of the tumor. Gross total tumor resection was possible in 85% of cases. The median follow up was 7.83 y (SD +/- 3.93 y). No local recurrence was observed. Conclusions: The preoperative vascular stent facilitates tumor dissection from the internal carotid artery without risk of vascular damage, helping the surgeon to achieve surgical radicality. The vascular stent is indicated in the case of revision surgeries, circumferential involvement of the vessel and in cases with non-insufficient intracerebral crossflow. Procedural complications, temporary antiplatelet therapy and delay of surgery are the limitations of the procedure.

Background: Surgical excision of a non-palpable breast lesion requires a localization step. Among available techniques, wire-guided localization (WGL) is most commonly used. Other techniques (radioactive, magnetic, radar or radiofrequency-based, and intraoperative ultrasound) have been developed in the last two decades with the aim of improving outcomes and logistics., Methods: We performed a systematic review on localization techniques for non-palpable breast cancer., Results: For most techniques, oncological outcomes such as lesion identification and clear margin rate seem either comparable with or better than for WGL, but evidence is limited to small cohort studies for some of the devices. Intraoperative ultrasound is associated with significantly higher negative margin rates in meta-analyses of randomized clinical trials (RCTs). Radioactive techniques were studied in several RCTs and are non-inferior to WGL. Smaller studies show higher patient preference towards wire-free localization, but little is known about surgeons' and radiologists' attitudes towards these techniques., Conclusions: Large studies with an additional focus on patient, surgeon, and radiologist preference are necessary. This review aims to present the rationale for the MELODY (NCT05559411) study and to enable standardization of outcome measures for future studies.

Axillary surgery in breast cancer (BC) is no longer a therapeutic procedure but has become a purely staging procedure. The progressive improvement in imaging techniques has paved the way to the hypothesis that prognostic information on nodal status deriving from surgery could be obtained with an accurate diagnostic exam. Positron emission tomography/magnetic resonance imaging (PET/MRI) is a relatively new imaging tool and its role in breast cancer patients is still under investigation. We reviewed the available literature on PET/MRI in BC patients. This overview showed that PET/MRI yields a high diagnostic performance for the primary tumor and distant lesions of liver, brain and bone. In particular, the results of PET/MRI in staging the axilla are promising. This provided the rationale for two prospective comparative trials between axillary surgery and PET/MRI that could lead to a further de-escalation of surgical treatment of BC. • SNB vs. PET/MRI 1 trial compares PET/MRI and axillary surgery in staging the axilla of BC patients undergoing primary systemic therapy (PST). • SNB vs. PET/MRI 2 trial compares PET/MRI and sentinel node biopsy (SNB) in staging the axilla of early BC patients who are candidates for upfront surgery. Finally, these ongoing studies will help clarify the role of PET/MRI in BC and establish whether it represents a useful diagnostic tool that could guide, or ideally replace, axillary surgery in the future.

Background: use of fibrin sealants following pelvic, paraaortic, and inguinal lymphadenectomy may reduce lymphatic morbidity. The aim of this meta-analysis is to evaluate if this finding applies to the axillary lymphadenectomy., Methods: randomized trials evaluating the efficacy of fibrin sealants in reducing axillary lymphatic complications were included. Lymphocele, drainage output, surgical-site complications, and hospital stay were considered as outcomes., Results: twenty-three randomized studies, including patients undergoing axillary lymphadenectomy for breast cancer, melanoma, and Hodgkin's disease, were included. Fibrin sealants did not affect axillary lymphocele incidence nor the surgical site complications. Drainage output, days with drainage, and hospital stay were reduced when fibrin sealants were applied ( p < 0.0001, p < 0.005, p = 0.008)., Conclusion: fibrin sealants after axillary dissection reduce the total axillary drainage output, the duration of drainage, and the hospital stay. No effects on the incidence of postoperative lymphocele and surgical site complications rate are found.

In the last two decades, surgical methods for axillary staging in breast cancer patients have become less extensive, and full axillary lymph node dissection (ALND) is confined to selected patients. In initially node-positive patients undergoing neoadjuvant chemotherapy, however, the optimal management remains unclear. Current guidelines vary widely, endorsing different strategies. We performed a literature review on axillary staging strategies and their place in international recommendations. This overview defines knowledge gaps associated with specific procedures, summarizes currently ongoing clinical trials that address these unsolved issues, and provides the rationale for further research. While some guidelines have already implemented surgical de-escalation, replacing ALND with, e.g., sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) or targeted axillary dissection (TAD) in cN+ patients converting to clinical node negativity, others recommend ALND. Numerous techniques are in use for tagging lymph node metastasis, but many questions regarding the marking technique, i.e., the optimal time for marker placement and the number of marked nodes, remain unanswered. The optimal number of SLNs to be excised also remains a matter of debate. Data on oncological safety and quality of life following different staging procedures are lacking. These results provide the rationale for the multinational prospective cohort study AXSANA initiated by EUBREAST, which started enrollment in June 2020 and aims at recruiting 3000 patients in 20 countries (NCT04373655; Funded by AGO-B, Claudia von Schilling Foundation for Breast Cancer Research, AWOgyn, EndoMag, Mammotome, and MeritMedical).