Locoregional Spread of Cutaneous Melanoma: Sonography Findings

OBJECTIVE: This article reviews various aspects of locoregional spread of malignant cutaneous melanoma, as imaged with gray-scale sonography and Doppler techniques. The scenarios illustrated include disease staging (primary melanoma, satellite metastasis, in-transit metastasis, and lymphadenopathies), sentinel lymph node biopsy procedure, patient follow-up, recurrence detection, cutaneous metastasis, and sonographically guided intervention. CONCLUSION: High-resolution sonography allows recognition of small, clinically-occult melanomatous foci. It plays a major role in locoregional staging and follow-up of patients with cutaneous melanoma.