title: Black sentinel lymph node and 'scary stickers'.
abstract: An unusual case is presented of a young adult patient with two black-stained, radio-nucleotide tracer-active sentinel lymph nodes biopsied following her primary cutaneous melanoma treatment. This was subsequently confirmed to be secondary to cutaneous tattoos, averting the need of an elective regional node dissection. History of tattooing and tattoo removal should therefore be obtained as a routine in all melanoma patients considered for sentinel node biopsy (SLN). SLN biopsy and any subsequent completion node dissection should be strictly staged so that proper histologic diagnosis of the sentinel node is available for correct decision making and treatment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Christchurch Hospital, Riccarton Avenue, Private Bag 4710, Christchurch 8140, New Zealand. ayang.nz@gmail.com
authors.forename: Arthur S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Terrence A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Creagh
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003116:Color; D005260:Female; D005548:Foreign-Body Migration / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D058965:MART-1 Antigen / Q000378:metabolism; D008545:Melanoma / Q000601:surgery*; D009418:S100 Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D021701:Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery*; D013653:Tattooing / Q000009:adverse effects
chemical_list: D058965:MART-1 Antigen; D009418:S100 Proteins