LAUSR

or node and the tracer or dye may be diverted past the true first echelon node(s) to a false SN. In our clinical N+ group, 27 patients were found to be pathologically N0 despite having clinical palpable lymph nodes. The pre-operative clinical staging in these patients was as follows: T2N1, T3N1, T3N2b and T4N2c. The question arises as to whether these patients could be spared a therapeutic neck dissection, by means of a less invasive, accurate investigation. From the literature, we see that despite its accuracy in the clinically N0 neck, SLNB has yet to be accepted as a standard therapeutic option, however the results of other. Studies on the validity of SLNB are pending. Our results in the clinical N0 neck confirm this high degree of accuracy, suggesting that the technique was appropriate and adequate. Hence, the suboptimal accuracy of the SLNB in the clinical N+ necks can be assumed not to be related to technical issues or a ‘learning curve’ associated with the procedure, but reflects the inadequacy of SLNB as a staging tool in the clinically N+ neck.