[Sentinel lymph node biopsy in melanoma patients: methods, indications, and clinical significance]

The incidence of melanoma in Lithuania has doubled over the last decade. Sentinel lymph node biopsy, currently becoming a standard method in the US and Europe, is a minimal invasive and highly sensitive surgical procedure. It can be used for the detection of melanoma micrometastasis in regional lymph nodes in cases when non-invasive methods fail to reveal them. Both disease-free survival and disease-specific survival were significantly better for patients with a negative sentinel lymph node biopsy. A. Breslow thickness, W. H. Clark level, and ulceration of the melanoma were strong predictors, but not as strong as the histological status of the sentinel lymph node. The procedure for sentinel lymph node biopsy is nowadays standardized, including preoperative dynamic lymphoscintigraphy combined with intraoperative gamma probe guidance and blue-dye injection. The aim of this article is to present an update of the sentinel lymph node biopsy method and the prognostic significance of this procedure on the basis of more than 400 sentinel lymph node biopsy's carried out at the Department of Dermatology of the Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg since 1997 and the results of recently published studies in the literature.