Role of Indocyanine Green to Mitigate Wound Complications in Component Separation Technique for Ventral Hernia Repair—Our Early Experience

The ease of the anterior component separation technique (ACST) makes it an attractive surgical option for ventral hernia repairs (VHR). Incorporation of indocyanine green-fluorescence angiography (ICG-FA) to map soft tissue perfusion during open ACST is an effective way to minimize the wound complications. This study aims to evaluate the impact of adoption of ICG-FA on wound-related complications following open ACST in VHR. We performed a retrospective review of patients who underwent VHR with the open ACST at a single centre between March 2018 and July 2020. The study comprised of consecutive cases of open ACST with onlay meshplasty done before (March 2018–April 2019) and after (May 2019 to July 2020) implementation of ICG-FA for intra-operative perfusion mapping of subcutaneous tissue and skin. The pre-ICG group and post-ICG group were similar in terms of baseline patient demographics and peri-operative details. The rate of surgical site occurrence’s was higher in the pre-ICG group, but this result was not statistically significant (46% vs. 26%; p value 0.189). Skin necrosis, however, was observed in significantly less patients of the post-ICG cohort (29% vs. 5%; p value 0.045). This study demonstrates the effectiveness of perfusion mapping by the use of ICG angiography to determine potential areas of decreased perfusion and thereby minimize wound complications. Using ICG-FA to guide removal of at-risk tissue to minimize wound complications may substantially improve the patients outcome.