Author: fidelmac

Stanford Medicine researchers found that after the March 2020 COVID-19 shutdown, nonurgent surgery rates dropped, but within months they bounced back and remained at pre-pandemic levels, even as coronavirus infections peaked during the fall and winter of 2020.

The study, contradicts the assumption that the COVID-19 pandemic has continually curtailed nonessential surgeries across the country. Using administrative claims from more than 13 million surgical procedures in 49 states, the study compared the number of surgeries performed each week in 2019 with the corresponding week in 2020. As expected, the researchers found a 48% decrease in surgical volume during the seven weeks after mid-March, when the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recommended that hospitals minimize, postpone or cancel elective surgeries. 

But 35 days after issuing its initial proclamation to curtail elective surgeries, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued safe resumption guidelines, which focused on adequate facilities, pre-procedure COVID-19 testing, and supplies of protective equipment. “If you could manage those things,” Wren said, “you could operate”.

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2786935

Introduction: A current challenge for endometriosis surgery is to correctly identify the localizations of disease, especially when small or hidden (occult endometriosis), and to exactly define their real extension. The use of near-infrared radiation imaging (NIR) after injection of indocyanine green (ICG) represents one of the most encouraging method. The aim of this study is to assess the diagnostic value of NIR-ICG imaging in the surgical treatment of endometriosis compared with the standard of treatment.

Material and methods: The Gre-Endo trial is a prospective, single-arm study (NCT03332004). After exploring the operatory field using the white light (WL) mode, patients were injected with ICG and then observed in NIR mode. All suspected areas were classified and chronicled according to lesions visualized only in WL, NIR-ICG, or in the combination of both. Lesion not visualized in WL was considered as suspect occult lesion (s-OcL). In addition, a random control biopsy from an apparent negative peritoneum visualized in WL and NIR-ICG imaging was taken for all patients (control cases). All lesions removed were considered “suspect endometriosis” until pathology.

Results: Fifty-one patients were enrolled between January 2016 and October 2019. A total of 240 suspected lesions have been identified with both methods (WL + NIR-ICG). Two hundred and seven (86.2%) lesions out of the overall 240 were visualized with WL imaging, and 200 were confirmed to be pathologic (true positive for WL). The remaining 33/240 (13.75%) (false negative for WL) lesions were identified only with NIR-ICG imaging and collected as s-OcL. All 33 s-OcLs removed were confirmed to be pathologic (c-OcL = 100%). NIR-ICG vision showed PPV of 98.5%, NPV of 87.1%, Se of 87%, and Sp of 98.5%, confirming that this kind of imaging is an excellent diagnostic and screening test (p = 0.001 and p = 0.835, according to McNemar’s and Cohen’s kappa tests, respectively).

Conclusions: The use of NIR-ICG vision alone and combined with WL showed good results in intraoperative detection rate and fluorescence-guided surgery of endometriosis. Furthermore, NIR-ICG allowed surgeons to remove occult lesions that otherwise would remain, leading to possible greater postoperative pain and a higher risk of persistence and relapse.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34868929/

The evaluation of hepatic function and functional capacity of the liver are essential tasks in hepatology as well as in hepatobiliary surgery. Indocyanine green (ICG) is a widely applied test compound that is used in clinical routine to evaluate hepatic function. Important questions for the functional evaluation with ICG in the context of hepatectomy are how liver disease such as cirrhosis alters ICG elimination, and if postoperative survival can be predicted from preoperative ICG measurements.

Within this work a physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) model of ICG was developed and applied to the prediction of the effects of a liver resection under various degrees of cirrhosis. For the parametrization of the computational model and validation of model predictions a database of ICG pharmacokinetic data was established. The model was applied (i) to study the effect of liver cirrhosis and liver resection on ICG pharmacokinetics; and (ii) to evaluate the model-based prediction of postoperative ICG-R15 (retention ratio 15 min after administration) as a measure for postoperative outcome.

Key results are the accurate prediction of changes in ICG pharmacokinetics caused by liver cirrhosis and postoperative changes of ICG-elimination after liver resection, as validated with a wide range of data sets. Based on the PBPK model, individual survival after liver resection could be classified, demonstrating its potential value as a clinical tool.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8646028/

Objective: To evaluate effectiveness and reproducibility of qualitative and quantitative near-infrared indocyanine green (NIR-ICG) analyses as a tool for anastomotic perfusion assessment after full-thickness bowel resection for recto-sigmoid endometriosis (RSE).

Methods: Thirty-three symptomatic women with RSE undergoing minimally invasive full-thickness surgical excision of RSE and NIR-ICG evaluation from November 2019 to July 2020 were included. Results: Of 33 patients, 2 (6%) developed bowel fistula. In predicting bowel fistula, qualitative and quantitative NIR-ICG evaluations showed sensitivity of 100% and 100%, specificity of 71% and 93%, and AUC of 0.86 (95%CI: 0.67-1) and 0.96 (95% CI: 0-1), respectively. Regarding inter-operator agreement rate, it was reported as excellent for qualitative analysis and very good for quantitative one.

Conclusion: Qualitative and quantitative NIR-ICG evaluations might be effective and reproducible tools for anastomotic perfusion assessment after discoid or segmental resection for RSE. Quantitative evaluation might be even more effective than qualitative evaluation in predicting bowel fistula.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34875108/

The aims of the present study were to describe the use of intravenous indocyanine green (ICG) to assess vascularity of urinary diversion (UD) after pelvic exenteration for gynecologic cancers, to evaluate the feasibility and safety of this technique, and to assess the postoperative complications. Methods: Prospective, observational, single-center, pilot study including consecutive patients undergoing anterior or total pelvic exenteration due to persistent/recurrent gynecologic cancers between August 2020 and March 2021 at Fondazione Policlinico Gemelli IRCCS, Rome, Italy. All patients underwent intravenous injection of 3–6 ml of ICG (1.25 mg/ml) once the UD was completed. A near-infrared camera was used to evaluate ICG perfusion of anastomoses (ileum–ileum, right and left ureter with small bowel, and colostomy or colorectal sides of anastomosis) a few seconds after ICG injection.

Results: Fifteen patients were included in the study. No patient reported adverse reactions to ICG injection. Only 3/15 patients (20.0%) had an optimal ICG perfusion in all anastomoses. The remaining 12 (80.0%) patients had at least one ICG deficit; the most common ICG deficit was on the left ureter.

Conclusion: The use of ICG to intraoperatively assess the anastomosis perfusion at time of pelvic exenteration for gynecologic malignancy is a feasible and safe technique.

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fonc.2021.727725/full

In the past decade, navigation surgery using fluorescent indocyanine green (ICG) dye for hepatoblastoma (HB) has been developed for the resection of primary or metastatic tumors. Since HB cells can take up ICG but cannot excrete it to the bile duct, ICG remains in the HB cells, which can be used for navigation by fluorescent activation. The complete resection of the primary tumor as well as metastatic tumors, along with appropriate neoadjuvant and adjuvant chemotherapy, is essential for cure. ICG fluorescence can detect microscopic residual lesions in the primary lesion and identify micro-metastases in the lung or other lesions; consequently, ICG navigation surgery may improve outcomes for patients with HB. The basic technique and recent advances in ICG navigation for HB surgery are reviewed.

Conclusion: ICG fluorescence navigation surgery can be used safely and easily to identify the primary tumor and metastatic hepatoblastoma in real time during open and laparoscopic pneumonectomy and hepatobiliary surgery.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8617810/

The superficial temporal artery (STA) frontal branch flap is susceptible to venous congestion because of its unpredictable and variable outflow. The authors applied indocyanine green angiography in identifying the superficial temporal vessels to help surgeons with proper flap designs to avoid severe complications.

A retrospective review from 2015 to 2020 was conducted. All the patients who underwent indocyanine green angiography before forehead flap transfer for facial defect reconstruction were reviewed. The STA and vein were observed using indocyanine green angiography preoperatively. The relationship between the artery and vein was investigated. The venous anatomy was analyzed to guide the pedicle design. The survival of the flap and complications were assessed.

A total of 12 patients were identified and included in this study. Indocyanine green angiography allows clear visualization of the detailed anatomy of the STA and vein. The frontal branch of the vein had great variations and generally diverged from the arterial branch. The tiny venae comitantes provided sufficient drainage for 2 small forehead flaps. The frontal branch of the vein entered the forehead and was used as the outflow channel in 4 patients. The parietal branch of the vein, which consistently gave off secondary tributaries to the superior forehead, was included in the pedicle in 6 patients. All flaps survived without complications.

Indocyanine green angiography provided accurate localization of the superficial temporal vessels. This technique may be helpful in the precise planning forehead flap surgeries and in avoiding the risk of venous congestion.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34855637/

To examine choroidal neovascularization (CNV) characteristics in patients with exudative age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV), using swept-source optical coherence tomography angiography (SS-OCTA), and investigate agreement with OCT B-scan, fundus fluorescein angiography (FFA), and indocyanine green angiography (ICGA) by two different examiners. This is a retrospective multicentric study that involved patients with a history of AMD and PCV. Examiner A, who had access to OCTA, B-scan OCT, FFA, and ICGA imaging, had to differentiate between AMD and PCV, study the activity of AMD using Coscas’ criteria (active vs. quiescent), and categorize PCV subtypes, while examiner B had only access to OCTA. Then, the diagnostic concordance was assessed between both examiners.

A total of 27 patients (11 females (40.7%) and 16 males (59.3%), P = 0.231) were included in the analysis.  SS-OCTA alone remains limited in some specific phenotypes of PCV, which suggests the ongoing role of B-scan OCT associated with FFA and ICGA in the diagnosis of these conditions. In conclusion, although SS-OCTA seems to be superior in detection of PCV activity when compared with SD-OCTA, it remains limited in some specific phenotypes, which suggests the ongoing role of ICGA in the diagnosis of this pathology.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8610682/

The new scientific developments and technological opportunities that have led to significant changes all build up the digital era. In medicine, the use of new technologies in patient diagnosis and treatment processes has opened new horizons for physicians and patients. As considering for the medical training, 3-dimensional modeling opportunities, virtual reality, augmented reality, and various simulators offered by the new technologies of the digital era have become a new hope. The 3-dimensional scanning and modeling, 3-dimensional medical printing, virtual reality technologies applications and simulators in urology are very recent and valuable. Besides, the exoscope-assisted 3-dimensional open surgery provides high-resolution 3-dimensional images to surgeons with high comfort as compared with old-fashioned operating microscopes.

New modalities that tried to be integrated in robotic surgery are 3-dimensional reconstruction, usage of indocyanine green, augmented reality, contrast ultrasound, haptic feedback, and availability of single port. Some new companies announced their new robotic systems in the market. The use of these new technological applications during medical training, especially at the beginning of the education curve for various surgical interventions, may be beneficial in terms of reducing possible complications that may be encountered due to inexperience at the beginning of the education process and increasing patient safety. Urology will also stay at the futuristic approach in medicine, while 3-dimensional technologies used more widely in this field.

https://balkanmedicaljournal.org/en/urologic-surgery-in-digital-era-foresights-and-futuristic-approach-133847