[The case of malignant melanoma of the external ear with hidden location]

Melanoma is one of the most malignant neoplasm. Mostly it is located in skin but also can appear in every place where melanocytes are present. Approximately 25% of all of these tumours is located in head and neck region probably because of intensive sun exposure of the skin. The case of the 44-year-old, male patient with malignant melanoma of the external ear was shown in this paper. The patient was asymptomatic and diagnosed accidentally. The suspicion of metastatic lymph nodes of neck was based on CT and ultrasonography examination. The patient was treated by surgical excision (total resection of the right auricle) with one centimeters of free margins. Additionally elective neck's lymph nodes dissection was performed. The histopathological evaluation has shown radical excision of stage II (Clark's scale) malignant melanoma of the ear with negative margins and without metastatic lymph nodes of the neck. The patient was not qualified to radiotherapy by oncologist. No evidence of local recurrences or distant metastasis was detected during a 3 years follow-up period. The epidemiology, clinical and pathological classification of the tumour, diagnostic problems and therapy were described. The prognosis of melanoma depends mostly on the thickness of the tumour but also on level of invasion and presence of ulceration.