Increasing the Efficacy of SLNB in Cases of Malignant Melanoma Located in Close Proximity to the Lymphatic Basin

Figure 1

Axillary lymphatic basin: gamma count readings from primary MMs are found to interfere with the readings from the lymphatic basin, thus making tracing of the SLN difficult. SLN: sentinel lymph node; blue circle: range of radiation emitted from the SLN; red stars: possible sites of primary MMs in very close proximity to the lymph basin; red circles: range of radiation emitted from the potential MM sites. Lymph node is marked with “A”; as we can see, this lymph node is inside the range of radiation of both the SLN and the primary melanoma. Since many lymph nodes can be found in similar position, identification of the SLN could be impaired.