Indocyanine Green Fluorescence in Surgical Practice – A Narrative Review of Clinical Applications

The introduction in surgical practice of NIR fluorescent systems with their augmented reality enhanced the visual abilities of the surgeons who imagined over just a decade a myriad of uses for this emergent technology. We reviewed the clinical applications of Indocyanine Green from intraoperative cholangiography and SLN identification to bowel perfusion assessment, endocrine surgery and evaluation of Crohn’s disease and Barrett’s esophagus. The immense value of this new method of functional and anatomical assessment is unequivocal, but there are pitfalls and drawbacks of the commercially available systems. By presenting all these we hope to disseminate the importance and the potential of the technology and to promote the interest in usage and research in the field.