ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the clinical value of indocyanine green (ICG) fluorescence navigation in laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) after percutaneous transhepatic gallbladder drainage (PTGBD) in elderly patients with acute cholecystitis. Methods A retrospective analysis was performed for the perioperative clinical data of the elderly patients with acute cholecystitis who underwent LC after PTGBD in Zhengzhou Central Hospital Affiliated to Zhengzhou University from June 2021 to February 2022. The 36 patients who underwent ICG fluorescence navigation were enrolled as experimental group, and the 26 patients who did not undergo ICG fluorescence navigation during the same period of time were enrolled as control group. Preoperative general information was analyzed for both groups, as well as time to identify the biliary system during surgery, time of operation, intraoperative blood loss, bile tract injury, conversion to laparotomy, time to first flatus after surgery, time to ambulation, time to removing abdominal drainage tube, time to return to normal diet, and length of postoperative hospital stay. The group t -test or the Mann-Whitney U test was used for comparison of continuous data between two groups, and the chi-square test was used for comparison of categorical data between groups. Results Compared with the control group, the experimental group had a significantly shorter time to identify the biliary system during surgery (19.9±3.7 min vs 36.5±5.9 min, t =13.56, P < 0.05), a significantly shorter time of operation (50.6±8.5 min vs 80.9±10.6 min, t =12.48, P < 0.05), and a significantly lower amount of intraoperative blood loss ( χ 2 =6.91, P < 0.05). No patient was converted to laparotomy in the experimental group, while 2 patients in the control group were converted to laparotomy, and no bile duct injury was observed in either group. Compared with the control group, the experimental group had significantly shorter time to ambulation (10.2±2.4 hours vs 16.6±3.2 hours, t =8.92, P < 0.05), time to removing abdominal drainage tube (20.1±3.4 hours vs 30.7±4.7 hours, t =10.2, P < 0.05), time to return to normal diet (20.3±3.8 hours vs 31.2±6.0 hours, t =8.68, P < 0.05), and length of postoperative hospital stay [3.3 (3.0-4.3) days vs 5.3 (5.0-6.2) days, Z =5.91, P < 0.05]. Conclusion ICG fluorescence navigation can visualize the extrahepatic biliary system during LC after PTGBD in elderly patients with acute cholecystitis, which may help to achieve accurate operation, reduce the risk of surgery, shorten the time of operation, and accelerate postoperative recovery.