Intraoperative indocyanine green (ICG) videoangiography in spinal hemangioblastoma surgery - helpful tool or unnecessary?

Abstract

Background: Hemangioblastomas are highly vascularized tumors that may be associated with extensive architecture of the surrounding pathological vessels. The distinction between feeding arteries and draining veins is usually not obvious during microsurgical en-bloc tumor resection. The aim of this investigation is to provide recommendations in which hemangioblastomas intraoperative indocyanine green (ICG) videoangiography might be beneficial for safe en-bloc tumor resection.

Methods: This is a single-center retrospective review of resected spinal hemangioblastomas over a 59-month period to identify operations in which ICG videoangiography was used. We analyzed whether intraoperative ICG videoangiography is useful for identifying possible feeding arteries and draining veins. The identified benefits and shortcomings of this technique were summarized.

Results: In total, 39 patients had surgery for removal of spinal hemangioblastomas. Intraoperative ICG videoangiography was performed in 26 surgeries for resection of spinal hemangioblastomas (66.7 %). In 25 of 27 removed hemangioblastomas (92.6 %), intraoperative ICG videoangiography yielded useful insights about the vascularization of the tumor and as thus regarded as helpful. In two cases, the pathological vessels could not be clearly assigned to feeding arteries or draining vessels. Complete tumor removal was achieved in all patients.

Conclusion: ICG videoangiography offers real-time intraoperative visualization of the tumor vasculature and can therefore improve surgical decision-making. Ideally, direct microscopic visualization of the structures to be assessed should be aimed for in ICG videoangiography. The information gained from ICG videoangiography may be limited in the case of tumors or vessels that lie deeper or are covered by the myelon or other structures.

Keywords: Hemangioblastoma; Indocyanine green; Intramedullary tumor; Intraoperative angiography; Spine surgery; Von Hippel-Lindau.