Indocyanine Green Fluorescence Angiography and The.17
Indocyanine Green Fluorescence Angiography and The.17
Indocyanine Green Fluorescence Angiography and The.17
C
Dis Colon Rectum 2018; 61: 1228–1234
DOI: 10.1097/DCR.0000000000001123 olorectal cancer is one of the most common
Copyright © 2018 The Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, cancers in the world, and the incidence is in-
Inc. on behalf of the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons. creasing.1 With novel technical advances, better
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Cre- understanding of the physiology, and improved surgical
ative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives License
4.0 (CCBY-NC-ND), where it is permissible to download and share the
technical skills, surgeons offer patients better outcomes
work provided it is properly cited. The work cannot be changed in any after colorectal resections, albeit with complications.2
way or used commercially without permission from the journal. However, among postoperative complications, anasto-
1228 DISEASES OF THE COLON & RECTUM VOLUME 61: 10 (2018)
DISEASES OF THE COLON & RECTUM VOLUME 61: 10 (2018) 1229
motic leakage (AL) is the most serious complication that Search Strategy
has a negative impact on both short- and long-term out- Potential relevant studies were identified by a comprehen-
comes.3 The reported incidence rate of AL after colorec- sive literature search, which covered the following electronic
tal surgery ranges from 3% to 20%.4,5 Some studies have platforms: PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane Li-
suggested that AL is associated with reduced overall sur- brary, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure. The
vival and increased rate of local recurrence after resec- search was performed independently by 2 researchers, and
no language or date restrictions were applied. The last search
tion for colorectal cancer.3,6
was performed in August 2017. The following terms were
Some investigators have found that poor blood supply
used during literature search: anastomotic leakage, colorectal
and tension at the anastomotic site are the main risk factors cancer, fluorescence angiography, fluorescence imaging, and
for AL.7 It has been reported that blood supply is related to indocyanine green. The reference lists of all retrieved articles
the location of the tumor, preoperative bowel obstruction, were screened to identify other relevant studies.
and perioperative transfusion.8 Moreover, absence of Rio-
lan arterial arcade and sacrifice of left colic artery during Selection Criteria
resection may also be linked with poor blood supply.9,10 Studies satisfying the following criteria were included in
A variety of methods have been used to assess the the meta-analysis: 1) comparative studies investigated
anastomotic integrity intraoperatively, including mechan- the association between ICGFA and AL in patients un-
ical patency (air leak and dye tests) and endoscopic assess- dergoing surgery for colorectal cancer, 2) the diagnosis
ment.11 Meanwhile, several clinical signs, including bowel of AL was confirmed via CT, and 3) the outcomes of the
serosal color and palpable mesenteric arterial pulsations, study cohort undergoing ICGFA were compared with a
have been used to check the vascularity of the cut end of control group in which ICGFA was not performed. Ex-
the bowel. However, these signs are subjective and may clusion criteria were publication types such as case re-
well lead to misinterpretations even by experienced sur- ports, letters reviews, meeting abstracts, meta-analyses,
geons. Moreover, some of these signs may not be feasible and proceedings, as well as studies lacking necessary data
while performing laparoscopic colon resection.1 for calculation.
Recently, many studies have found that intraoperative
indocyanine green (ICG) fluorescence angiography (ICGFA) Data Extraction and Study Quality
Data were extracted by 1 investigator with complete and in-
might be useful in preventing AL in colorectal surgery by vi-
dependent verification by another investigator. Each of the
sualizing the bowel perfusion of the anastomotic region.12,13
2 reviewers assessed the studies independently based on the
Fluorescence imaging for tissue perfusion assessment has selection criteria to collect the following descriptive infor-
repeatedly been found to be beneficial in decision-making mation from eligible studies: surname and initials of the first
and improving surgical outcomes in plastic, cardiothoracic, author, year of publication, journal, country where study
hepatobiliary, and foregut surgeries.14–18 Also in colorectal was conducted, study design, number of subjects, type of op-
surgery, ICG fluorescence imaging is useful for assessing eration, cancer type, demographic variables of the patients,
anastomotic perfusion.19 ICG is a sterile, water-soluble tri- ICG dose, and postoperative complications. Discrepancies
carbocyanine compound that absorbs near infrared light between the 2 investigators were settled by discussion. Be-
with a peak spectral absorption at 800 nm. ICG is injected cause of the mix of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and
intravenously, which rapidly and extensively binds to plasma cohort studies, risk of bias and qualities of included studies
protein. It can be cleared by the liver in 3 to 5 minutes into were assessed using the Newcastle–Ottawa Scale.22 Studies
the bile. It is a nontoxic and nonionizing agent with a maxi- with a score of ≥7 were considered high quality.
mal daily dose of 2 mg/kg, with few reported cases of adverse
effect.20 There are few systematic reviews and meta-analyses Statistical Analysis
conducted on the effect of ICGFA in colorectal cancer sur- All of the statistical analyses were performed with Review
geries. Therefore, we aimed to analyze the current evidence Manager 5.1 (The Cochrane Collaboration, The Nordic
Cochrane Centre, Copenhagen, Denmark). The ORs and
for the impact of intraoperative ICGFA on AL after resection
95% CIs were used as the statistical measures for dichoto-
for colorectal cancer.
mous outcomes to calculate the relevance of ICGAF and
the incidence of AL after colorectal cancer. ORs were calcu-
MATERIALS AND METHODS lated from the original data and combined with the Man-
tel–Haenszel method. OR > 1.0 indicated greater risk of an
This meta-analysis was carried out in line with the Pre- adverse event in the experimental group. A p < 0.05 was
ferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta- considered significant for all of the analyses. Heterogeneity
Analysis statement.21 among studies was tested using χ2 and I2 statistics and the
1230 SHEN ET AL: ICGFA AND AL AFTER COLORECTAL RESECTION
(n = 44) (n = 39):
(n = 36): not case-control study
(n = 3): lack necessary data
Studies included in
qualitative synthesis
(n = 5)
Included
Studies included in
quantitative synthesis
(meta-analysis)
(n = 4)
FIGURE 1. Flow diagram depicting the process of selection of studies for the meta-analysis.
funnel plot. A p < 0.05 and I2 > 50% indicate significant ing studies (n = 67) were screened by title and abstract
heterogeneity. In these cases, a random-effects model was for relevance. Twenty-three studies were excluded because
used; otherwise a fixed-effect meta-analysis was performed. these were case reports, reviews, or conference abstracts
(n = 14) or not related to research topics (n = 9). Full texts
of the remaining 44 records were retrieved and evaluated.
RESULTS Among these 44 studies, 39 studies were unsuitable be-
cause of a lack of control group (n = 36) or necessary data
Description of Included Studies (n = 3). In addition, among the included 5 studies, 1 study
A total of 148 records were identified on initial searching. was excluded because the same patients were included in
After the exclusion of 81 duplicated studies, the remain- another recent study by the same authors.23,24 Finally, 4
ICGFA Control OR OR
Study or subgroup Events Total Events Total Weight M-H, Fixed, 95% CI Year M-H, Fixed, 95% CI
Kudszus et al25 7 201 15 201 39.0% 0.45 (0.18—1.12) 2010
Jafari et al26 1 16 4 22 8.5% 0.30 (0.03—2.98) 2013
Boni et al27 0 42 2 38 7.0% 0.17 (0.01—3.69) 2016
Kim et al24 2 310 18 347 45.5% 0.12 (0.03—0.52) 2017
FIGURE 2. Forest plot analysis. df = degrees of freedom. ICGFA = indocyanine green fluorescence angiography; MH = Mantel–Haenszel
method.
retrospective case–control studies published from 2010 to chemoradiotherapy or a complicated operation, including
2017 were incorporated into the current meta-analysis.24–27 coloanal anastomosis or inadequate perfusion.
A flow diagram of study selection is displayed in Figure 1.
The included 4 studies were from 4 different coun- ICGFA and AL After Operation of Colorectal Cancer
tries with a total sample size of 1177 patients, and all of This meta-analysis found that the use of intraoperative IC-
the studies divided samples into ICGFA group and control GFA was associated with lower incidence of AL after sur-
group. All 4 studies were retrospective case-matched and gery for colorectal cancer (Fig. 2). Among the 4 studies, the
single-institutional studies with the primary end points main outcomes were 4.0% overall reduction in leak rate
being the incidence of AL requiring surgical reinterven- and 16.4% change in surgical plan,25 12.0% overall reduc-
tion and change in the surgical strategy. Three studies tion in leak rate and 19.0% change in resection margins,26
investigated patients with rectal cancer,24,26,27 and 1 study 5.0% overall reduction in leak rate and 4.7% change in sur-
gical plan,27 and 4.9% overall reduction in leak rate.24 The
investigated patients with colorectal cancer.25 Moreover,
corresponding OR values were 0.45 (95% CI, 0.18–1.12),
the operation method differed among the studies: in 2
0.30 (95% CI, 0.03–2.98), 0.17 (95% CI, 0.01–3.69), and
studies surgeries were performed by robot-assisted laparo- 0.12 (95% CI, 0.03–0.52). The combined OR value was
scopic method,24,26 whereas in the other studies surgeries 0.27 (95% CI, 0.13–0.53). The result revealed that ICGFA
were conducted by laparoscopic/conventional method.25,27 was associated with a lower AL rate after colorectal resec-
Table 1 shows the baseline characteristics of included tion. The difference was statistically significant (p < 0.001),
studies. Two studies mentioned the use of diversion: in and there was no significant heterogeneity (χ2 = 2.48;
the study by Jafari et al,26 the rate of diversion was 75% degrees of freedom = 3; p = 0.48; I2 = 0).
in the ICG group and 77% in the control group, where
the decision to use diversion was left to the discretion of Publication Bias
the attending surgeon; in another study,24 concurrent il- From the funnel plot (Fig. 3), the included studies were of
eal diversion was performed in patients with preoperative symmetrical distribution, and the p value for the Egger test
was 0.373. Both demonstrated that there was no evidence
SE (log[OR]) of significant bias in this meta-analysis; therefore, our re-
0 sults were statistically reliable.
0.5 DISCUSSION
This meta-analysis found that use of ICGFA was associ-
1.0
ated with a lower AL rate after colorectal resection. Thus,
we conclude that intraoperative ICGFA has a link with a
lower AL rate of colorectal cancer surgery. The lower AL
1.5 rate is probably attributed to better assessment of bowel
perfusion and vascularity with the help of ICG. Moreover,
ICGFA changed the surgical plan by guiding the appropri-
2.0 ate line of bowel transection in 4.7% to 19.0% of cases.25–27
0.01 0.1 1 10 100 Recently, fluorescence angiography using ICG has
OR
become the most promising technology that allows for
FIGURE 3. Funnel plot diagram. real-time intraoperative objective evaluation of bowel per-
1232 SHEN ET AL: ICGFA AND AL AFTER COLORECTAL RESECTION
in resection margins
Main outcomes
in surgical plan
in surgical plan
rescence (NIRF) angiography in anastomotic colorectal
surgery for cancers, diverticulitis, and Crohn's disease con-
leak rate
cluded that 3.5% (31 of 894) of all NIRF patients and 7.4%
(32 of 434) of all control patients developed an anastomot-
ic leakage (p=0.002).30 Another meta-analysis including 5
in surgical
plan, %
16.4
19.0
4.7
NS
cation of one included study was not only cancer but also
IBD and diverticular disease.32 The results of non-colorec-
tal cancer surgery may affect the final statistics. In addition,
Leak rate, %
Control: 18.0
Control: 5
ICG: 6.0
ICG: 0
NS
NS
angiography (Firefly,
fluorescence system
Camera system
Laser-assisted ICG
Laser-assisted ICG
Control: 5.9
Control: 7.2
ICG: 5.4
ICG: 6.3
colectomy: 63
and procedure
Robot-LAR
L/C right
TABLE 2. Detailed information of included studies
170/232
women)
28/10
50/30
(men/
Sex
Control: 201
Control: 22
Control: 38
ICG: 42
n
Boni et al27
24
Last but not least, this meta-analysis did not include RCTs,
Kim et al
systematic review of literature. J Laparoendosc Adv Surg Tech. a retrospective analysis of 121 sphincter-saving procedures in a
2018;28:157–167. single institution. Surg Endosc. 2011;25:454–462.
31. Blanco-Colino R, Espin-Basany E. Intraoperative use of ICG 35. Zimmern A, Prasad L, Desouza A, Marecik S, Park J, Abcarian
fluorescence imaging to reduce the risk of anastomotic leakage H. Robotic colon and rectal surgery: a series of 131 cases. World
in colorectal surgery: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Surg. 2010;34:1954–1958.
Tech Coloproctcol. 2018;22:15–23. 36. Ragupathi M, Ramos-Valadez DI, Miller S, Haas EM. The safety
32. Kin C Vo H, Welton L, Welton M. Equivocal effect of intraoper- and efficacy of robotic-assisted laparoscopic surgery for com-
ative fluorescence angiography on colorectal anastomotic leaks. plex colorectal procedures. Surg Endosc. 2011;25:S280.
Dis Colon Rectum. 2015;58:582–587. 37. Bello B, Umanskiy K, Ohara K, et al. Robotic versus laparoscopic
33. MacDonald E, Molloy R. Laparoscopic versus open resection proctectomy for rectal cancer: short-term outcomes and cost
for colorectal cancer: early outcome data from a large regional analysis of a case matched series. Dis Colon Rectum. 2013;56:e115.
database. Surg Endosc. 2012;26:S182–S183. 38. Halabi WJ, Kang CY, Jafari MD, et al. Robotic-assisted colorec-
34. Lam HD, Stefano M, Tran-Ba T, Tinton N, Cambier E, Navez B. tal surgery in the United States: a nationwide analysis of trends
Laparoscopic versus open techniques in rectal cancer surgery: and outcomes. World J Surg. 2013;37:2782–2790.
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