Objective To investigate the feasibility and operation effect of endoscopic sentinel lymph node biopsy （SLNB） in breast cancer. Methods The data of 410 breast cancer patients who underwent SLNB （including 107 patients with endoscopy and 303 with open operation） were analyzed in our hospital from January 2009 to March 2012. SLNB was performed by using methylene blue staining or the combination of methylene blue and 99Tcm-sulfur colloid tracing. Results The successful rate of SLN detection with methylene blue and 99Tcm-sulfur colloid tracing was 94.56% （139/147） in open operation group and 94.25% （82/87） in endoscopy group. The successful rate of SLN detection with methylene blue was 88.46% （138/156）in open operation group and 85.00% （17/20） in endoscopy group. The mean of detected SLN number with combined method or methylene blue was 1.90/1.98 in open operation group and 1.91/1.82 in endoscopy group respectively. SLN-positive rate was 22.30% （31/139） and 25.36% （35/138） in open operation group， and 19.51% （16/82） and 23.53% （4/17） in endoscopy group， respectively. The rate of subcutaneous effusion in endoscopy group was higher than that in open operation group （P=0.001）, but other postoperative complications presented no significant difference. Conclusions Endoscopic SLNB can obtain the similar safety and the clinical efficacy with traditional SLNB， but superior cosmetic effect. So it is worthy of clinical application in breast cancer.