Significance evaluation of ultrasound diagnosed positive axillary lymph node in breast cancer patients may follow to standardisation of this examination prior to every surgical procedure. In this paper the authors evaluated sensitivity and specificity of preoperative axillary lymph node ultrasonic examination in patients with newly diagnosed breast cancer, and also proposed ultrasound topography of the axilla, because of uniqueness of this examination and insufficient information provided by anatomical axilla topography. The authors compared preoperative axillary sonography with histological findings of surgically removed lymph nodes (8 on average) in 196 women with breast cancer. Sensitivity of sonography was over 60%, which remarkably improved clinical (palpation) examination of the axilla with sensitivity of 33%. Based on their results obtained in a group of 110 patients authors conclude that detectability of metastasis in axillary lymph nodes by ultrasound is feasible provided that the size of the metastatic lesion is 1 cm and bigger.

        Key words: axillary lymph node ultrasonography – ultrasound axilla topography – sentinel node biopsy