Does indocyanine green improve the evaluation of perfusion during laparoscopic colorectal surgery with extracorporeal anastomosis?

ICG perfusion is safe and straightforward to carry out. However, when pulsatile arterial bleeding is demonstrated clinically it does not add anything to assessment of perfusion in our study. Furthermore, in 25% of cases perfusion can be demonstrated beyond the cut edge of the mesentery up to a distance of 2.5 cm. This raises the possibility that an organ well perfused with ICG may have less than ideal blood flow when assessing for this with a view to constructing an anastomosis.