Feasibility and Usability of Intraoperative Fluorescent Angiography With Indocyanine Green in Penetrating Abdominal Trauma

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The surgical management of penetrating bowel and intestinal injuries, inflicted via a gunshot or knife stabbing, has long been a topic of debate \[1-3\]. The surgical management principally consists of: (i) primary repair; (ii) primary diversion or (iii) an initial abbreviated so called "damage control" operation followed by a definitive surgical intervention once the patient is stabilized \[4-9\] . Different classifications systems have been proposed to help determine the best operative option \[2,3,10-14\], but intestinal injuries can be difficult to manage and despite improvements in the diagnostics and treatment of penetrating abdominal trauma, high mortality and morbidity rates are prevalent \[15,16\]. In order to determine the correct surgical option an accurate determination of intestinal viability is essential. But clinically assessing regional perfusion is challenging and surgeons' clinical risk assessment of anastomotic leaks have shown a low predictive value \[17\]. Hence, there is a need for more precise diagnostic tool helping the surgeon in assessing intestinal viability the extent of intestinal injury. Indocyanine green (ICG) fluorescence angiography (ICG-FA) is an applied method for to assessing visceral perfusion worldwide. The obtained fluorescent signal after intravenous injection, is considered proportional to blood flow, thus aiding the surgeon to detect and address inadequate regional perfusion, despite satisfactory macroscopic appearance, intraoperatively \[18-21\]. Hence, the use of perioperative ICG-FA, has reduced the risk of anastomotic leaks after esophageal and colorectal surgery \[22-25\] and in the setting of acute mesenteric ischemia, significantly reduced the extent of intestinal resection \[26\]. In retrospective review of 186 war related trauma cases the use of ICG-FA was deemed useful however only 9 of these cases were truncal/abdomen/gastrointestinal and no objective definition of usability was provided \[27\]. Hence, data on the usability and feasibility of ICG-FA for in penetrating abdominal trauma is limited and to our knowledge has not been investigate in a civilian population previously. The present study aimed to investigate the usability and feasibility of ICG-FA in patients undergoing open abdominal exploration for penetrating abdominal trauma

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