Efficacy and clinical significance of omitting blue dye injection during sentinel lymph node biopsy before Mohs micrographic surgery for malignant melanoma of the lower extremities.

Blue dye injection can be omitted without compromising the accuracy of standard SLNB. Omitting blue dye injection also has marked advantages in MMS for melanoma. What's already known about this topic? Sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) is usually performed using a triple technique including lymphoscintigraphy, which involves the injection of a radiolabelled tracer, blue dye injection, and radioisotope detection using a gamma probe. Blue dye injection may cause pathological misinterpretation and obscure clinical margins. What does this study add? Omitting the dye does not decrease diagnostic accuracy and is particularly advantageous for Mohs micrographic surgery (MMS) in melanomas with clinically indistinct tumour borders. SLNB without blue dye injection is feasible in MMS for melanoma.