Register for email alerts and news feeds:
This journal | BMJ Group
rss
Published 17 April 2009
Cite this as: BMJ Case Reports 2009 [doi:10.1136/bcr.09.2008.1015]
Copyright © 2009 by the BMJ Publishing Group Ltd.

Reminder of important clinical lesson

Sentinel node biopsy in floor of mouth cancers: the need to clear level I

Abdulkader Fawzi Hamad1, Lee W T Alkureishi2, Taimur Shoaib2

1 Bradford Royal Infirmary, Trauma and Orthopaedics, 166 Leeds Road, The Gatehaus, Bradford BD1 5BQ, UK
2 Glasgow Royal Infirmary, Canniesburn Plastic Surgery Unit, 84 Castle Street, Glasgow G40SF, UK

Correspondence to:
Abdulkader Fawzi Hamad, abdulhamad{at}doctors.org.uk

SUMMARY

Tumour lymphatic spread in head and neck squamous cell carcinomas is the single most important prognostic indicator. With advances in histological examination, sentinel node biopsy is proving to be an accurate method for staging the clinically N0 neck. We have previously highlighted the difficulties in locating sentinel nodes in the neck from floor of mouth primaries. We also raised the question whether level I nodes should be cleared as part of sentinel node procedures in floor of mouth tumours. We describe a case which illustrates the difficulties encountered when performing sentinel node biopsies in patients with floor of mouth cancers and the rationale behind asking such a question.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?

This Article

Services
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Topic Collections
Bookmark with

Register for free content

The full text of all Editor's Choice articles and summaries of every article are free without registration

The full text of Images in ... articles are free to registered users

Only fellows can access the full text of case reports (apart from Editor's Choice) -   become a fellow  today, or encourage your institution to, so that together we can grow and develop this resource

Don't forget to sign up for content alerts  so you keep up to date with all the case reports as they are published, and let us know what you think by commenting on the Editor's blog