Melanoma of head and neck: a retrospective study

This retrospective study was carry out to asses the clinical outcome of a series of 10 histologically proven cutaneous head and neck malignant melanoma (CHNME) treated at the Department of Plastic Surgery, Ferrara University, Italy, in the period between January 2005 and December 2010. There were 5 females and 5 males, age ranged from 39 to 102 years with a mean value of 77 years (standard deviation +/- 21 years). There were 1, 6, 1 and 2 Clark's stage I, II, III and IV, respectively. In Breslow's staging there were 6 cases for stage I, 2 for stage II and 2 for stage III whereas T stage there were 7 cases for stage I, 1 for stage II and 2 for stage III respectively. CHNMEs primary localization were check, ear, neck, forehead and nose in 3, 2, 2, 2, and 1 cases, respectively. Surgical technique was a resection and immediate suturing in all cases. None had positive neck nodes (N0) at admission and neck dissection was not performed. One case needs a second operation on tumor localization. Chi square text was used to correlate Clark's, Breslow's and T classification to the second surgery case. None of the studied variables was statistically correlated with positive margins. CHNME is a rare tumor and wide resection is mandatory since tumor could be wider than clinical appearance