BACKGROUND While representing only 3-4% of malignant skin tumors, cutaneous melanoma is the most aggressive and lethal. Statistical knowledge about the biological behavior of this tumor is essential for guiding daily outpatient practice and aiding public health policies. OBJECTIVES To analyze the profile of patients with cutaneous melanoma attending a pathology department in Teresina (state of Piauí) between 2000 and 2010. METHODS Retrospective study of melanoma patients diagnosed between 2000 and 2010 in the São Marcos Hospital in the city of Teresina. The pathology laboratory reports were studied and all the statistical analyses performed using SPSS 19.0. RESULTS A total of 25 in situ, 199 invasive and 89 metastatic melanomas of unknown primary site were observed. Histological types found were nodular (52.8%), superficial spreading melanoma (18.6%), acral (10.6%) and lentigo maligna (9.5%). In 144 (73.4%) cases the Breslow thickness was >1 mm. Metastasis was found in 28.6% of invasive melanomas and nodular melanoma, Clark IV/ V, Breslow > 1 mm, mitotic index ≥ 6 and ulcerated lesions were more likely to metastasize. CONCLUSION Most melanomas presented Breslow> 1mm. The main factors associated with metastasis were nodular type, Clark IV / V, Breslow> 1mm, mitotic index ≥ 6 and ulcerated lesions.

Being a fast and safe method in the hands of well trained professionals in both prehospital and intrahospital care, Cricothyrotomy has been broadly recommended as the initial surgical airway in the scenario "can't intubate, can't ventilate", and is particularly useful when the obstruction level is above or at the glottis. Its prolonged permanence, however, is an endless source of controversy. In this review we evaluate the complications of cricothyrotomy and the need of its routine conversion to tracheotomy through a search on PubMed, LILACS and SciELO electronic databases with no restriction to the year or language of the publication. In total, we identified 791 references, retrieved 20 full text articles, and included nine studies in our review. The incidence of short-term complications ranged from zero to 31.6%, and the long-term complications, from zero to 7.86%. Subglotic stenosis was the main long-term reported complication, even though it was quite infrequent, occurring only in 2.9 to 5%. The frequency of conversion to tracheostomy varied from zero to 100%. Although a small frequency of long-term complications was found for emergency cricothyrotomy, the studies' low level of evidence does not allow the recommendation of routine use of cricothyrotomy as a secure definitive airway.