Abstract
In our department, multivariate analysis of clinicopathological findings produced the dicriminant of a possibility of the presence of lymph node metastasis, and in consideration of the result, neck dissection was performed. The relationship between preoperative ultrasonographic findings of the cervical lymph node metastasis and pathological findings of the primary lesion in 71 patients who received neck dissection out of 245 patients with squamous cell carcinoma of tongue, floor of the mouth, and mandibular gingiva was investigated. Among the 23 cervical region cases for which ultrasonographic diagnosis was negative, metastasis was suspected from clinicopathological findings, 11 cases had pathologically positive lesions, and in 44 cases for which ultrasonographic diagnosis was considered, 24 cases were found to be positive pathologically and their pathologic malignancy gradings of the primary lesion were high. Eighteen out of 20 cases with positive ultrasonographic diagnosis were found to be positive. From the results, it was suggested that the diagnosis of the cervical lymph node metastasis in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma should be performed in consideration of the ultrasonographic findings of the cervical regions and clinicopathological findings, especially the degree of malignancy of the primary lesion.
