ABSTRACT

Lymphoscintigraphy has been shown to be indispensable in predicting lym­ phatic basins at risk for the development o f metastatic disease in patients with cutaneous malignant melanoma.2 Preoperative lymphoscintigraphy serves as a road map for the surgeon planning the surgical procedure in the following ways:

Radioguided Surgery, edited by Eric D. Whitman and Douglas Reintgen. © 1999 Landes Bioscience

1. To identify all nodal basins at risk for metastatic disease (Fig. 5.1). 2. To identify any in-transit nodes that can be tattooed by the nuclear medi­

cine colleague for later harvesting. In-transit metastases occur in 5% o f the melanoma population and may, by definition, be considered the SLN (Fig. 5.2).