Elective neck dissection is performed in head and neck cancers, when there isn’t any palpable lymph node. This causes an increase in patient morbidity and chance of having complications. Today, increasingly sentinel lymph node biopsy are applied to patients in the evaluation of neck metastases in orofarengeal tumors. The excised lymph nodes are examined in cross-sectional method and depending on the result, comprehensive or selective neck dissection is applied. Specialists are not sure about the role of sentinel lymph node biopsy in head and neck cancers. In this paper, we aimed to discuss the evaluation of occult metastases in head and neck cancers, methods of diagnosis and the role of sentinel node biopsy in diagnosis.
Keywords: sentinel lymph node, elective neck dissection, head and neck cancers