Intraparotid Sentinel Lymph Node Dissection for Melanoma: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Surgical management of head and neck cutaneous melanoma (HNCM) has evolved tremendously since sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) has become the prominent tool of prognosis and staging. This meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the safety and efficiency of intraparotid SLNB compared with a more extensive surgery of superficial parotidectomy (SP).

The electronic database of PubMed and Scopus were searched for publications until 10 March 2022. In addition, the study included data of patients from our institution who underwent cherry-picking procedures. Pooled estimates were calculated using the random-effects model. Heterogeneity was calculated using the I² test.

The pooled result regarding the rate of SLNB excision success was 97 % (95 % confidence interval [CI], 0.95–0.99; p < 0.0001), and the pooled probability of a positive SLNB result was 16 % (95 % CI 0.12–0.20; p < 0.0001). Failure of SLNB had pooled results of 4 % (95 % CI 0.02–0.06; p < 0.0009). For SP, no study examining N0 HNCM patients has met the authors’ inclusion criteria. Cherry-picking SLNB had temporary and permanent facial nerve paralysis relative risks (RRs) of 0.12 (95 % CI 0.06–0.27; p < 0.0001) and 0.46 (95 % CI 0.17–1.22; p < 0.0001), respectively, compared with historical data from four weighted meta-analyses of SP.

The data from this study suggest that intraparotid SLNB performed for N0 HNCM patients is a safe and reliable procedure, with very low complication rates. Failure of the procedure did not exceed 4 %. Therefore, intraparotid SLNB may be superior to an extensive surgery such as SP and should be examined in future prospective trials.