Abstract

AGUILAR BARRON, P. et al. Description and long term follow up of 123 patients with melanoma and sentinel lymph node biopsy. Cir. plást. iberolatinoam. [online]. 2013, vol.39, n.1, pp.53-60. ISSN 1989-2055.  https://dx.doi.org/10.4321/S0376-78922013000100007.

The study of sentinel node (SN) in the management of melanoma requires close collaboration among plastic surgeon, dermatologist, specialist in Nuclear Medicine and pathologist. The authors present a retrospective study in a group of 123 patients with primary cutaneous melanoma who consented to sentinel node biopsy (SLNB) between December 1999 and December 2005 at the University Hospital Cruces (Barakaldo, Bizkaia, Spain). We describe the long-term evolution and the relation between SLNB results and relevant clinical events during follow-up. We removed 294 sentinel nodes; 15 patients had tumour in the centinela node, subsequently developed distant metastasis in 46.6%, compared with 19% in patients with negative SN (p = 0.021). Of the 123 patients studied, 14 died of melanoma (11´4%): 3 in the first year of follow up, 2 in the second, 3 in the third, 2 in the fourth and 2 in fifth year. We corroborate that the SLNB is an easy technique and useful for staging, showing the statistic relationship between positive SN and bad prognostic.

Keywords : Melanoma; Sentinel node.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )