Laparoscopic appendectomy (LA) is a well-standardized surgical procedure, but there are still controversies about the different devices to be used for the appendiceal stump closure and the related postoperative complications. Indocyanine green (ICG) fluorescence angiography (FA) has already been shown to be helpful in elective and emergency surgery, providing intraoperative information on tissue and organ perfusion, thus guiding the surgical decisions and the technical strategies. According to these two aspects, we report a mini-series of the first five patients affected by gangrenous and flegmonous acute appendicitis intraoperatively evaluated with ICG-FA during LA. The patients were admitted to the Emergency Department with an usual range of symptoms for acute appendicitis. The patients were successfully managed by fully LA with the help of a new hypothetical challenging use of ICG-FA.
Keywords: acute appendicitis; fluorescence; indocyanine green; laparoscopic appendectomy; new technologies.