[Sentinel node mapping in anorectal melanoma]

Anorectal melanoma is a rare condition and its surgical management is controversial. This article reports the case of a patient with anorectal melanoma who underwent abdominoperineal resection and Sentinel Lymph Node biopsy. Melanoma was classified pT4aN0. Fifty months after initial treatment, the patient is still alive disease free. SLN mapping allows better surgical excision of the presumed sites of the lymphatic dissemination in melanoma. SLN biopsy improve the accuracy of nodal staging. In case of sentinel node metastasis, it allows early therapeutic lymphadenectomy of the sentinel nodes's basin and could therefore reduce the high rate of regional recurrence in anorectal melanoma. Moreover, knowing the exact histological status of the regional nodes means that the relative merits of abdominoperineal resection and wild local excision could be compared in relation to tumor thickness.