Dr. Neil Merritt, MD

Indocyanine Green

for Pediatric Colorectal Conditions

Hirschsprung's Disease (HD) and anorectal malformations (ARM) are both paediatric diseases of the colon and rectum. Both of these conditions require surgery in order to correct them, frequently needing sections of the bowel to be removed. Some complications of removing parts of the bowel include forming a stricture (a narrowing of the place where the bowel is reattached), and leak from the join. These can be devastating complications, and can significantly impact a patient's quality of life. Indocyanine green (ICG) is a medication that binds to blood vessels and can be visualized using special cameras in the operating room. Once it binds, it "lights up" green on this equipment. This lends the advantage of being able to better see which parts of the bowel get good blood flow. The theory is that good blood flow can reduce the risks of previously mentioned complications. This has been shown to be true in a variety of bowel surgeries in adults. ICG has also been shown to be safe in children. Given that HD and ARM are both relatively rare conditions (\~1/5000 live births), research in this area needs to be strategic. The investigators want to ensure that the investigators can recruit enough patients to the study using this protocol such that if this were to be scaled up to a multi-centre trial in the future, the investigators could demonstrate feasibility. The investigators will collect data both on the feasibility of recruitment as the primary outcome and secondary outcomes including stricture, leak, length of stay in hospital, and return to hospital.