Agnė Čižauskaitė, Donatas Petrauskas, Gintaras Gelžinis, Marija Sakalauskaitė, Alvydas Česas
Abstract
Melanoma is a malignant cutaneous disease that has the highest mortality among all the cancers of the skin. The incidence of this malignancy is increasing worldwide. Sentinel lymph node biopsy for IB and II stage melanoma is established as a standard treatment. Though there is no overall consensus about sentinel lymph node biopsy in some clinical situations as melanoma located in the head or neck, elderly patients, thin melanoma, melanoma specific complications, unidentified and false-negative sentinel node. 18 sentinel lymph node biopsies for primary melanoma in Klaipeda University Hospital were performed. There were 3(16.67%) patients with melanoma of the head. 38.9% (n=7) of primary melanoma patients presented to our hospital were aged 65 years and older. Sentinel lymph node biopsies for 6(37.5%) thin melanomas patients were performed. Complication rate was 11.11% (n=2). There were no sentinel lymph nodes identified in 2(11.11%) cases. In order to make the optimum decision in nonstandard clinical situation, the collaboration of surgeons, radionuclear medicine specialists and pathologists is obligatory.
Keyword(s): melanoma; sentinel lymph node; lymph node dissection.
DOI: 10.5200/sm-hs.2015.066
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