A single institution's review of patterns of compliance with melanoma ultrasound surveillance recommendations

Abstract

To the Editor: Sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) is the current gold standard for staging patients with melanoma without evidence of regional nodal metastasis.1,2 Traditionally, patients found to have nodal disease with SLNB underwent immediate completion lymph node dissection (CLND), allowing for identification and removal of melanoma in nonsentinel nodes. However, recent studies have shown that close clinical follow-up with ultrasound imaging of the affected nodal basin can replace CLND for most patients.