Sentinel node in tumours of the lip and the oral cavity]

This study shows the results obtained by the application of the sentinel node (SN) in oral and lip cancer and performs a lymphatic map of these tumours.We prospectively studied 14 patients with lip and oral tumours, all of them N0. We injected colloidal particles of serum albumin labeled with Tc-99 peritumoraly and we located the SN intraoperatively. The SN was then sent for anatomopathological study.Sentinel node was identified in all of the patients. In 11 of them the sentinel node was negative for metastases and correctly predicted the status of the neck. In 3 patients the sentinel node was the only node that contained metastases. There were no false negatives. The sensibility of the technique was 100%.The results showed that this technique is a feasible method for tumours in these locations and can avoid neck dissections in N0 patients.