SPECT Demonstrating Lymphatic Drainage from Truncal Melanoma to Para-Aortic Lymph Nodes

Lymphoscintigraphy to identify the sentinel lymph node is a valuable adjunct for staging cutaneous melanoma. This technique may be particularly useful for truncal melanoma, because marked variability in drainage patterns has been reported. The authors report a case of melanoma of the back draining to three different nodal basins, including what were most likely para-aortic lymph nodes based on SPECT imaging.