Results
Patient and tumour characteristics
Thirty-two patientswere includedinthe study.Twentypatients
were female. Mean age was 55 13.6 years (range 17e77
years). Six melanomas were found on the upper extremity, ten
were found on the lower extremity, 12 were located on the
trunk and the remaining fourwere found on the head and neck.
The commonest histological subtype of melanoma was superficial
spreading (23 patients). Three patients had nodular melanoma,
two patients had acral lentiginous melanoma, one had
a naevoid melanoma, one had a malignant blue naevus, one had
a spindle cell melanoma and in one patient, the result was
unclassifiable. Median Breslow thickness was 1.4 mm (mean
2.03 2.26 mm, range 0.51e12; see Table 1).
Detection of SLN and influence on surgical
approach
PL identified the SLN in 31 of the 32 patients. SPECT/CT
identified the SLN in the same 31 patients. Both imaging