It may not be the correct approach, but I found that using wp_loaded does the trick and puts you back in the right spot; you have to set the right conditions to be sure the correct data is being handled. Then strip the url from the conditions before redirecting. Aside from condtions you can also apply capability checks.
add_action ('wp_loaded', 'clean_admin_referer');
function clean_admin_referer() {
if ( isset( $_REQUEST['condition1']) && isset($_REQUEST['condition2']) ) {
if (current_user_can('administrator')) {
<!-- do your database magic -->
$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] = remove_query_arg( array( 'condition1', 'condition2' ));
wp_redirect($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']);
}
}