ABSTRACT
Introduction: The plastic surgeon often treats patients with the most varied types of skin injuries, and, undoubtedly faces the melanoma, which consist a malignancy of skin and mucosa and represents 3% to 4% of the malignant skin neoplasias. It is the most aggressive cutaneous carcinoma. Methods: Were studied 116 diagnosed cases of melanoma at the pathology laboratory. The collected data concerning gender, age, margins, Breslow's thickness, Clark's level, mitotic index and presence or absence of regression, and ulceration were statistically analyzed and compared. Results: The patients corresponded 67.2% to women and 32.8% to men. The average age was of 56 years. There was no statistically significant difference between the genders. There was a histological predominance of the superficial diffusion type with 62.7% and nodular with 18.1%. There was no statistically significant association between: regression and BC index, sex and BC index, histological type and regression, histological type and sex, mitotic index and histological type of the tumor, angiolymphatic invasion, free or implicated margins or with either presence or absence of regression (p > 0.005). There was a statistically significant strong association between angiolymphatic invasion and BC index, histological type and BC index, histological type and angiolymphatic invasion, histological type and ulceration, and in the relationship mitotic index and BC index (p < 0.005). Conclusion: The treatment of this pathology demands a profound knowledge of its histological behavior, as based on this knowledge the initial surgical treatment is planned, enabling foreseeing the prognosis and evolution of the disease.
Keywords: Melanoma. Plastic surgery. Neoplasms. Neoplasm invasiveness. Neoplasm staging.