Unpredictability of lymphatic drainage patterns in melanoma patients.

We analysed the localisations of sentinel nodes (SN) found with the SN procedure to compare these sites with those that would have been predicted by conventional clinical descriptions of cutaneous lymphatic drainage. We assessed the surplus value of performing the SN procedure in melanoma patients who underwent regional nodal surgery. The SN procedure was performed in 348 patients with melanomas who were referred to our institute between 1993 and 1999.