The 'Sartorius Switch' and its relevance for the radiologist.

Abstract

We report the case of a 43 year old female patient, who underwent a left groin dissection 5 years after her original diagnosis of a 3.8mm Breslow thickness malignant melanoma of her left leg, where the appearance of a post-operative computed tomography (CT) scan caused diagnostic misunderstanding. This case demonstrates the importance of providing the radiologists with accurate information regarding surgical procedures prior to imaging such that misinterpretations of this kind can be avoided. Whilst the detail of an operation may be obvious to the surgical team, one cannot expect radiologists to be aware of either standard procedural detail, or indeed new surgical developments.