Sentinel lymph node biopsy in paediatric melanoma. A case series

The incidence of melanoma in children is uncommon, being particularly rare in children under 10 years-old. However, this disease is increasing by a mean of 2% per year. As in adults, the lymph node status is the most important prognostic factor, crucial to performing the selective sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB). We report 3 cases of paediatric patients of 3, 4 and 8 years-old, in which SLNB was performed for malignant melanoma. Paediatric age implies greater technical difficulty to the scintigraphy scan due to poor patient cooperation, with mild sedation required in some cases, and only being able to acquire planar images in other cases. SPECT/CT was only performed in the oldest patient. In our cases, SLNB was useful for selecting the least invasive surgery in order to reduce morbidity.