[Cutaneous malignant melanoma. Excision margins and lymph node dissections]

Excision is the treatment of choice in stage I malignant melanoma. As supported by several controlled clinical studies, reduced safety surgical margins from 0.5 to 2 cm are sufficient. Most surgical defects can be closed by simple skin flap techniques. In critical anatomic sites (e. g. face, hand, foot) micrographic surgery is the therapy of choice. Sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) was proposed as a minimally-invasive procedure for the histopathologic staging of the regional lymph nodes. Today SLNB is standard in the diagnostic approach to melanomas thicker than 1 mm. The therapeutic relevance of SLNB is unclear. The most common sign of tumor progression is involvement of regional lymph nodes. The treatment of choice in patients with neck metastases is the radical, modified or selective neck dissection. In the case of axillary metastases, levels I-III of the axillary lymph nodes are excised. With groin metastases, superficial inguinal dissection is usually preferred. There are no randomized controlled trials comparing the outcome of combined inguinal and pelvic lymph node dissection and superficial inguinal lymph node dissection.