Radioguided Surgery for the Localisation of Specific Adenopathies in the Head and Neck Area.

Abstract

Intraoperative identification and excision of specific lymphadenopathies is not always easy; it is, therefore, important to have complementary techniques that help us in the identification of these structures intraoperatively. The aim of this study is to present preliminary results of the use of ROLL technique (radioguided occult lesion localisation) as a method of excisional biopsy in the head and neck territory. We present 10 cases of patients with difficult to localise lymphadenopathies in the head and neck territory that underwent the ROLL technique. The radiotracer was only injected in the nodes that we wanted to study; in this way, all of them were correctly identified and extracted without resecting those that had no signs of pathology avoiding removing healthy lymphatic tissue and reducing morbidity. The ROLL technique is a useful technique, since in all of the patients, the previously marked adenopathy was accurately identified and excised; we reduced the intraoperative time and avoided the complications derived from more aggressive cervical exploratory surgeries.