Abstract
Clinical intestinal viability assessment is associated with significant limitations, and there is an undisputable need for ancillary diagnostics during colic surgery. Human and companion animal surgeons struggle with similar intraoperative issues, yet there is little exchange between specialists. Therefore, this narrative review aimed to create an overview of real-time ancillary diagnostics with the potential for intraoperative intestinal viability assessment in horses. Most real-time ancillary diagnostics can be classified as either tissue perfusion or oxygenation assessments. Intestinal perfusion may be quantified using dark field microscopy, laser Doppler flowmetry, or fluorescence angiography (FA). In particular, indocyanine green FA has gained popularity in human medicine and is increasingly employed to predict intestinal injury. Intestinal oxygen saturation can be measured by pulse oximetry or mixed tissue oximetry. The latter can be conducted using visible light or near-infrared spectrophotometry, and these measurements correlate with clinical outcomes in various species. Other real-time diagnostics include thermography and techniques currently under development, such as laser speckle flowgraphy or photoacoustic imaging. The modalities discussed are minimally invasive and may be used for intraoperative assessments of the intestine. However, limitations include the occurrence of artifacts and the subjective nature of some modalities. Techniques such as indocyanine green FA and tissue oximetry are already available in veterinary practice and have the potential for use during colic surgery. However, blinded clinical trials are lacking in all species, and more research is needed to determine the accuracy and cutoff values in equine-specific intestinal lesions.