Sentinel node
The primary treatment of melanoma is surgical excision of tumour. The surgical treatment of melanoma always includes a sentinel lymph node biopsy if the thickness of the melanoma is more than 1 mm.
On the day preceding the procedure, the melanoma scar is injected with technetium radioisotope, and lymph node mapping is performed. The sentinel lymph nodes that take up the radioisotope are removed in conjunction with the additional excision of the melanoma scar.
If in further examination melanoma cells are found in these detected sentinel nodes, lymph node dissection is performed to remove all lymph nodes in that area of the body.
The surgery can be performed as day surgery under local anaesthesia, but if the lymph node area is large the surgery will be performed under general anaesthesia. The patient can stay overnight in the postoperative unit if necessary.
At our clinic, the surgery is performed by a plastic surgeon using oncoplastic methods. Local skin flaps, free flaps and, if necessary, microvascular tissue flaps are used.
The cost of the surgery depends on the extent of the procedure and will be estimated at the consultation appointment.