Evaluation of Incomplete Sentinel Node Biopsy Procedures and Sentinel Node Positivity Rates as Surgical Quality-Assurance Parameters in Melanoma Patients

Background There is little literature describing quality assurance (QA) validation of an individual surgeon’s ability to perform sentinel node biopsy (SNB) in melanoma patients. This study aims to evaluate incomplete SNB rates and SNB positivity rates as potential QA parameters. Methods An instituti...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Annals of surgical oncology 2012-11, Vol.19 (12), p.3919-3925
Main Authors: Spillane, Andrew J., Haydu, Lauren E., Lee, Nicholas C., Uren, Roger F., Stretch, Jonathan R., Shannon, Kerwin F., Quinn, Michael J., Saw, Robyn P. M., McCarthy, William H., Thompson, John F.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Child
Cohort Studies
Female
Humans
Lymph Nodes - diagnostic imaging
Lymph Nodes - pathology
Lymph Nodes - surgery
Lymphoscintigraphy
Male
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Melanoma - diagnostic imaging
Melanoma - pathology
Melanoma - surgery
Melanomas
Middle Aged
Neoplasm Staging
Oncology
Prognosis
Quality Assurance, Health Care
Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy - standards
Skin Neoplasms - diagnostic imaging
Skin Neoplasms - pathology
Skin Neoplasms - surgery
Surgery
Surgical Oncology
Young Adult
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Background There is little literature describing quality assurance (QA) validation of an individual surgeon’s ability to perform sentinel node biopsy (SNB) in melanoma patients. This study aims to evaluate incomplete SNB rates and SNB positivity rates as potential QA parameters. Methods An institutional database identified 2,874 patients with primary melanoma who had SNB performed when there was lymphoscintigraphy drainage to a single lymphatic field. Lymphoscintigraphy data were obtained from another database. Lymphoscintigraphy utilized small-particle colloid, allowing visualization of channels entering sentinel nodes on early dynamic scanning. Incomplete SNB was defined as retrieval of fewer sentinel nodes than identified on lymphoscintigraphy. Results The overall rate of incomplete SNB was 17.7 % (including axilla 7.8 %, neck 23.3 %, and groin 28.8 %). Individual surgeons varied significantly in their proportion of SNBs performed in each region ( p  
ISSN:1068-9265
1534-4681
DOI:10.1245/s10434-012-2427-y