ABSTRACT
To assess the safety and reliability of sentinel lymph node biopsy (SNB) as a staging investigation with respect to the accuracy of sentinel node detection, disease recurrence and survival in T1/T2 N0 oral squamous cell carcinomas. The harvested sentinel nodes (SNs) were sent for histopathological assessment. Elective neck dissection was offered within 3 weeks if the sentinel node biopsy was positive. All patients were monitored for at least 3 years. In the neck specimen in patients with positive SNs, the SN was the only node containing metastasis in 80% patients. The removal of a greater number of uninvolved regional cervical lymph nodes did not correlate with disease free survival, which makes a strong case for the role of SNB in this selected group of patients. The shape of the SN was not an indicator for predicting positive node, but there is a tendency towards a spherical shape when positive.
